Éric Tanguy studied composition with Horatio Radulescu from 1985 to 1988, and with Ivo Malec and Gérard Grisey from 1988 to 1991 at the Paris Conservatoire (CNSMDP), graduating cum laude.

He has received numerous grants and prizes, including a Stipendienpreis from the Darmstadt Summer Courses (1988), the Extra Muros Prize from Villa Medici (1989), a grant from the Franco-German High Council for Culture (1991), the Kranischteiner Musikpreis (1992), the André-Caplet Prize from the Institut de France (1995), the Hervé-Dugardin Prize from SACEM (1997), and was twice awarded the Victories of Classical Music Prize (Composer of the Year in 2004 and 2008). He was named a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters in 2004, and was awarded the SACEM Prize in 2012.

A former resident of the Villa Medici (1993-1994), Éric Tanguy was invited by Henri Dutilleux to teach at the Tanglewood Music Center in 1995. He was composer-in-residence in Champagne-Ardenne in 1995, in Lille in 1996, and with the Orchestra of Britanny from 2001 to 2003, during which his works Éclipse (performed during the solar eclipse of 1999), Incanto (2001), and Sinfonietta (2003) were premiered.

A prolific composer, Éric Tanguy’s catalogue includes works for solo instruments, chambre music, and concertos, notably for the violin, the composer’s primary instrument. In 2001, Mstislav Rostropovitch premiered Tanguy’s Second Cello Concerto at Flâneries Musicales in Reims. The work was subsequently performed in 2002 in Boston and at Carnegie Hall by Seiji Ozawa and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. His friendships with philospher Michel Onfray and poet Alain Duault have given rise to several vocal works, notably Descendues des étoiles (1998), le Jardin des délices (1996), Huit Tableaux pour Orphée (1997), and Les mains papillons (2010).

In 2004, his monodrama for speaker and orchestra, Sénèque, dernier jour, was premiered in Paris by Michel Blanc and the Orchestra of Britanny. Blanc was also the author of the text for the theatrical work, Photo d’un enfant avec une trompette, a commission of the Bouffes du Nord (Paris), which was premiered in the theatre’s 2013-2014 season.