Hugues Dufourt
French composer and philosophe, born Tuesday September 28, 1943, in Lyon
© Astrid Karger
A French composer born in 1943 in Lyon. A pianist by training and a pupil of Louis Hiltbrand, Hugues Dufourt studied composition in Geneva with Jacques Guyonnet. He also obtained an ‘agrégation’ diploma in philosophy (1967). After teaching at Lyons University, he joined the CNRS where he became research director (1973-2009); he founded and directed the doctoral cursus ‘Music and musicology of the 20th century’ at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (1989), and, along with Alain Bancquart and Tristan Murail, set up the Collectif de Recherche Instrumentale et de Synthèse
Sonore (Criss).
Both composer and theoretician, he has made considerable contributions to the spectral movement and is notably interested in the possibility of devising forms through the evolution of masses and ruptures. A member of the ensemble L'Itinéraire, he was one of its directors (1976-1981). In 2000 his work as a whole was awarded the Prize of the President of the Republic by the Académie Charles Cros. His works include Erewhon (1976), Antiphysis (1978), Saturne (1979), Surgir (1984), the opera Dédale first staged in Lyons (1995), Le cyprès blanc (2004), L’Asie (2009).