Bedrossian, Franck

He studied instrumentation and analysis at the CNR in Paris and composition with Allain Gaussin. He continued his composition studies with Gérard Grisey and Marco Stroppa at the Conservatoire Supérieur de Musique et de Danse in Paris, winning a Premier Prix in analysis and a master's degree in composition. In 2001-2 he attended the composition and computer music course and studied composition with Philippe Leroux, Tristan Murail, and Philippe Manoury at IRCAM. He completed his studies with Helmut Lachenmann at the Centre Acanthes in 1999 and the International Ensemble Modern Academy in 2004.

His works have been performed in France and internationally by ensembles and orchestras such as Itinéraire, Ensemble intercontemporain, 2e2m, Ictus, Court-circuit, Cairn, Ensemble Modern, Contrechamps, Eco Ensemble, San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, KNM Ensemble Berlin, Klangforum Wien, SWR Symphony Orchestra Baden-Baden und Freiburg, Moscow Ensemble, and the Danel, Diotima, and Tana string quartets. His music has been featured at festivals such as Agora, Résonances, Manca, Musica Nova, International Festival Cervantino, RTÉ Living Music Festival, Présences, Festival Borealis, Musica Strasbourg, Nuova Consonanza, Printemps des Arts de Monte-Carlo, Ars Musica, Suona Francese, Archipel, Wien Modern, Maerzmusik, Donaueschinger Musiktage, Stuttgart Summer, Summer Courses for New Music in Darmstadt, and the Venice Biennale. He has held scholarships from the Meyer Foundation (2001) and the Bleustein-Blanchet Foundation (2004) and has won SACEM's Hervé Dugardin Prize and the Pierre Cardin Prize in composition (2005), awarded by the French Institute (Académie des Beaux-Arts), as well as SACEM's Young Composers Award (2007). In 2006-8 he held a residential scholarship at the Villa Medici in Rome, and became a Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2011. Since 2008 he has lectured in composition at the University of California in Berkeley. In 2014 he was one of the composers invited to the IRCAM ManiFeste festival. His works have been published by Éditions Billaudot and since 2014, by Verlag Neue Musik in Berlin. The music of Franck Bedrossian focuses on exploring the nature of sound, controlling its emission, distortions, and physical resonance. Bedrossian works with austere, saturated sound material in its intermediary phases, transformations, and modelling. He favours radical means of expression, acknowledging two types of influences: that of Lachenmann with regard to working with sound and that of Grisey in terms of processual concept and harmonic direction. The works of Franck Bedrossian are also influenced by the expressionist abstractionism of Rothko and Pollock, the slow-motioned time in Bill Viola, and the bare expression of Beckett. He also emphasises the role of physical gesture in music, and is inspired by oral traditions and all 20th-century music trends, including jazz and rock because of their physical approach and natural voice emission.

Selected works: L'usage de la parole for clarinet, cello and piano (1999), La solitude du coureur de fond for alto saxophone (2000), Pleine lune for children's choir, violin, double bass and bassoon (2001), Transmission for bassoon and electronics (2002), La conspiration du silence for 35 musicians (2003, version for 14 players, 2009), Digital for double bass, percussion and electronics (2003), It for seven instruments (2004), Tracés d'ombres for string quartet (2005), Charleston for 15 musicians (2005, rev. 2007), Procession for viola and electronics (2006), Division for bass clarinet, trombone, double bass, ensemble and electronics (2006), Cérémonie pour six mains enchantées for piano (2006), Lamento for female voice and electronics (2007), Propaganda for saxophone quartet and electronics (2008), Manifesto for eight wind instruments (2008), Bossa nova for accordion (2008), Swing for ensemble (2009), Epigram - cinq poèmes d'Emily Dickinson for soprano and ensemble (2010), Edges for piano and percussion (2010), Accolade for viola, bass flute and double bass clarinet (2011), Itself for orchestra (2012), Innersonic for electric guitar and accordion (2012), The Edges Are No Longer Parallel for piano and electronics (2013), The Spider as an Artist for amplified cello (2014), Epigram II for soprano and ensemble (2014), We Met As Sparks for bass flute, double bass clarinet, viola and cello (2015), Twist for orchestra and electronics (2016), I Lost a World the Other Day for accordion and string quartet (2016), Troisième jour for ensemble (2017).