Born in 1945 in Saint-Jean d’Angély (Charente-Maritime, France), Jacques Lenot has always sought to maintain his independence, holding himself at a distance from contemporary music’s official circles. Brought to light by Olivier Messiaen, who insisted that his first composition be performed by the Orchestre national de l’Office de Radiodiffusion Télévision Française (ORTF) in 1967 for the Festival de Royan, Lenot has always identified himself as belonging to the serialist school, despite having stepped back from the movement in terms of technique. In 1966, he met Karlheinz Stockhausen, György Ligeti and Mauricio Kagel in Darmstadt, and then embarked on a career in Italy with Sylvano Bussotti, first in Rome, in 1969, and then in Milan.

Bussotti performed Lenot’s work, as did Marcello Panni and Giuseppe Sinopoli. Harry Halbreich devoted a significant part of the 1974 Festival de Royan to his compositions, and commissioned two works for the Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra of Baden-Baden and for the Berner Quartet in 1977. In 1974, Lenot was also invited to the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena by Franco Donatoni, who convinced him to sign a publishing contract with Suvini Zerboni in Milan.

After the premiere of a piece from a cycle written for Madame Salabert, titled Allégories d’exil in a 1980 performance by Pierre Boulez and the Ensemble Intercontemporain, Lenot began work on Pour Mémoire, a cycle of several formations of large orchestras, which premiered at the Salle Pleyel in 1983. After that began a phase of retreat. Maurice Fleuret, then director of music under Minister of Culture Jacques Lang, commissioned a work from him for the Groupe Vocal de France. Several montages emerged during this time, including Déchaînement si prolongé de la grâce, which Henri Ledroit performed in 1986. Ledroit’s death in 1988, which was followed by the death of many other friends of Lenot’s, pushed the composer into a second phase of retreat, during which he left Paris for the Gers region, where he lived from 1992 to 1997. During this time he became familiar with the organ and composed many of his works for that instrument in parallel with his Twenty-four preludes for piano.

Lenot composes in every musical genre; J’étais dans ma maison et j’attendais que la pluie vienne, after the play by Jean-Luc Lagarce, is his first “true” opera. He had initially chosen to work based on a play by Bernard-Marie Koltès, composing Roberto Zucco, but this project remained unfinished, as Koltès’ heirs rejected it. Lenot therefore chose to work with Lagarce’s play, and J’étais dans ma maison et j’attendais que la pluie vienne premiered on 29 January 2007 at the Grand Théâtre de Genève, directed by Christophe Perton, with sets designed by Christian Fenouillat and conducted by Daniel Kawka.

He has collaborated with IRCAM on two commissions, Il y a (co-commissioned with the Festival d’Automne à Paris, which premiered in 2009), and Isis und Osiris, which premiered in 2014.

The first two volumes of recordings of his compositions for piano – in collaboration with a private donor and the Intrada label, with support from MFA, the ADAMI, and the FCM – won multiple awards (Monde de la Musique, Académie Charles Cros, SACEM, etc.) and resulted in several commissions (Radio France, Abbaye de Royaumont, Musique Nouvelle en Liberté). In 2004, Lenot was named Chevalier des Arts et Lettres, and became an Officier des Arts et Lettres in 2011.

A collection of interviews with the composer by Frank Langlois was published in 2007 by Editions Musica Falsa and the SACEM as part of their Paroles series.