Félix Ibarrondo was born in Spain in 1943 to a musical family, and began his musical studies learning music theory and harmony with his father, Antonino. He went on to study philosophy and theology, at the same time continuing his musical studies, learning composition with Juan Cordero Castaño as well as piano, earning musical degrees from the conservatories of San Sebastián and Bilbao.

He moved to Paris, in 1969, where he studied with Max Deutsch, Henri Dutilleux, and Maurice Ohana, at the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Musique, where he earned a degree in composition while also studying electroacoustic music at the GRM.

His awards and honors include the Oscar Esplá Prize, the Lili Boulanger Prize, the CECA Arpa de Plata award, and the SACEM Young Composers prize.

When he arrived in Paris, Ibarrondo enrolled at the École du Louvre, where he found that painting and the visual arts were a contant source of stimulation for his music composition. While he has no official institutional affiliations, he works and dialogues with young composers and teaches introductory music classes built around his scores.

His abundant, varied catalogue, in which works for orchestra and voice feature strongly, has been performed by major ensembles including the Nouvel Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Orquesta Nacional de España, the Orquesta Sinfónica de Bilbao, the Orchestre de Poitou-Charentes, the Orchestre des Pays de Savoie, Ensemble Intercontemporain, the Arditti Quartet, the Trio à Cordes de Paris, the Contemporary Choir of Aix en Provence, Musicatreize, and Madrid’s LIM ensemble.

Personal relationships with performers are very important to him, and he has worked closesly with musicians including Jean-Claude Pennetier, Alain Meunier, Charles Frey, Pierre Strauch, Jérôme Pernoo, Michel Michalakakos, Christophe Desjardins, Gilles Burgos, Arturo Tamayo, Juanjo Mena, Roland Hayrabédian, Lionel Peintre, Kiyoko Okada, Alberto Ponce, Caroline Delume, Jean Horreaux, and Jean-Marie Tréhard.

His close relationships with Maurice Ohana and Francisco Guerrero have been decisive in both his musical and his personal life.

Musicologist and critic Harry Halbreich has written, “Ibarrondo is the perfect example of the independent composer, who, without signing on with any particular school, has, over time, used his powers of communication with audiences and performers to make a name for himself. Passionate about his Basque heritage, he is the very incarnation of his people’s qualities: focused passion; vehement, sometimes violent expressiveness; a preference for lived expression to abstraction and systems; generosity; openmindedness from a perspective of uncompromising and non-complacent humanism […] Rigorous, solid writing - the hallmark of all of Max Deutsch’s disciples - in his music are made to serve an expressive message whose burning generosity holds firm, when it needs to, even before the harshest of tones.”