updated 21 September 2009
© Christian Ganet

James Giroudon

French composer born in 1954 in La Tour du Pin, France.

James Giroudon was born in La Tour du Pin in Isère, France. He holds degrees in art history, sociology, and education sciences from the University of Lyon as well as graduating with a degree from the Conservatoire de Paris (CNSMDP), where he studied with Pierre Schaeffer and Guy Reibel.

Giroudon taught at the École nationale de musique de Saint-Étienne from 1982 to 1990, and founded the electroacoustics course there. He became a lecturer at the Université de Caen in 1992 (performing arts degree program). In 1981, he founded the GRAME in Lyon with Pierre-Alain Jaffrennou, and has served as its co-director ever since.

In 1992, Giroudon and Jaffrennou founded the festival Musiques en Scène in Lyon, which became a biennale in 2002. Since 1998, he and Thierry Raspail have co-curated the Musiques en Scène sound art show at the Lyon Museum of Contemporary Art. He was also invited to curate the 2000 Belluard Festival in Fribourg, Switzerland. Since September 2001, he has headed the “contemporary music” section of the Bloc Notes de la Mapra journal, published by the Maison des Arts Plastiques Rhône-Alpes.

James Giroudon composes electroacoustic music for concerts and large-scale musical performances, mixed pieces for soloists, instrumental ensembles, and electroacoustic devices. He has also written several musical theater scores. His works have been premiered in performances by ensembles such as Aleph, TM+, 2e2m, Archaeus (Bucarest), Alter Ego (Rome), the Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart, the Solistes de Lyon-Bernard Tétu, the Percussions Claviers de Lyon, and the Ensemble Orchestral Contemporain, as well as numerous soloists, including Jean Pierre Robert, Maurizio Barbetti, Elisabeth Grard, Daniel Kientzy, Jérémie Siot, and Yi-Ping Yang.

His works are regularly performed outside France, on tour with Grame concerts and by invitation from festivals in Europe, China, and North America. He was awarded the 1989 Académie du Disque Français prize for the group album Grame-Musiques numériques and a Bronze Faust in 1993 for the opera Jumelles, co-written with Pierre-Alain Jaffrennou. Several of his compositions have been recorded and released on labels such as Forlane (MFA series), ECM, Instant Présent, and Nova Musica.

James Giroudon has continued collaborating on multimedia projects that mix instrumental material and electronic sounds and devices, co-writing with the composer Jean-François Estager. In 2009, he received a commission from Forum-Musique and the Taipei Chinese Orchestra.


© Grame, 2009

Sources

  • James Giroudon, Grame (voir ressources documentaires).

Bibliographie

  • James GIROUDON, « Un état des lieux, vivifiant », Circuit, Musique contemporaine, Presses de l’Université de Montréal, vol. 1, n° 2, 1991.

Discographie

  • James GIROUDON, Jean-François ESTAGER, Unes, voix de basse, dans« Une contrebasse, un humain », Jean-Pierre Robert : contrebasse, avec des pièces de Pierre-Alain Jaffrennou, Karim Haddad, Pierre Jodlowski, Martin Matalon, Etienne Rolin, Kaija Saariaho, 1 cd ÂmeSON, 2007.
  • James GIROUDON, Jean-François ESTAGER, Noir, trois neiges d’un paysage,* Daniel Kientzy : saxophone, dans « Saxo Grame », avec des œuvres de Yann Orlarey, Andrea Molino, Pierre-Alain Jaffrennou, Jean François Estager, Jean Louis Dhermy , 1 cd Nova Musica, 2002, n° NMCD 5114.
  • James GIROUDON, Jean-François ESTAGER, Pierre d’Ombre, dans À voix Basse, ensemble Grame, éditions Instant Présent, 1996, n° GR 005.
  • James GIROUDON, Double 3, dans Musiques pour cordes, 1 cd Grame*, é*dition Forlane-Musique Française d’Aujourd’hui, 1992, n° UCD 16664.
  • James GIROUDON, Brick on brick, 1 cd ECM, 1992, n° LC 2516.
  • James GIROUDON, Pierre Alain JAFFRENNOU, Jumelles, édition Forlane, UCD 16634, 1990.
  • James GIROUDON, No exclusion, Barre Phillips, 1 cd Camouflages, édition Plateforme, Victoriaville-Canada.
  • James GIROUDON, Bribes d’hiver et Silence, parole et mémoire, avec de pièces de Pierre-Alain Jaffrennou et de Jean-François Estager 1 cd Musique Numérique, Edition Forlane, prix de l’Académie du Disque Français, 1988, n° UCD 16571.

Liens Internet

  • Pages sur James Giroudon sur le site du Grame : http://www.grame.fr, (lien vérifié en septembre 2009).