Édith Canat de Chizy was born in Lyon, France on 26 March 1950. She began her musical training studying the violin, an instrument she would play until she began her career as a composer. After completing her secondary studies in Lyon, Canat de Chizy moved to Paris to study art, archeology, and philosophy at the Sorbonne. At the same time, she entered the Conservatoire of Paris (CNSMDP), where she received six premiers prix, including one in composition, and began studying electroacoustics with the Groupe de recherche musicale (GRM). In 1983, as a student of Ivo Malec, she met Maurice Ohana in an encounter that was to prove a key moment in her career; she went on to publish a book on Ohana with François Porcile in 2005 (Paris, Editions Fayard Paris).

Canat de Chizy’s training as a violinist has been influential in her compositions, which now number over one hundred, and in which sinfonia concertante features extensively: Moïra (1998), a cello concerto, won the 1999 Concours Prince Pierre de Monaco and the following year, in 2000, her violin concerto Exultet, which had premiered in 1995 in a performance by Laurent Korcia, was nominated for the Victoires de la musique. Her viola concerto Les Rayons du jour was premiered in February 2005 by Ana Bela Chaves and the Orchestre de Paris, conducted by Christoph Eschenbach, and on 23 mars 2017, Missing, her second violin concerto, premiered at the Maison de la Radio in a performance by the Orchestre National de France.

Her compositions have been commissioned by the French Ministry of Culture, Radio France, the Orchestre de Paris, the IRCAM, and ensembles such as Musicatreize, Solistes XXI, Nederlands Kamerkoor, Sequenza 9.3, Accentus, and TM+. Notable pieces include her vocal works, such as Livre d’heures (1984), for soloists, women’s choir, and intrumental ensemble; Tombeau de Gilles de Rais (1993) – which was awarded the SACD Prix jeune talent musique in 1998 – and Corazon loco, created in collaboration with the choreographer Bianca Li and performed at the Théâtre National de Chaillot in January 2017. Other notable works include four string quartets, Vivere (2000), Alive (2003), Proche invisible (2010), and En noir et or (2017); her orchestral works, including Omen, which premiered in October 2006 with the Orchestre National de France, Pierre d’éclair, which premiered in March 2011 with the Orchestre National de Lyon; and her electronic compositions such as Over the Sea, which premiered on 11 May 2012 at the IRCAM’s Festival Manifeste and Visio (2016), which premiered at the Festival Présences of Radio France.

Édith Canat de Chizy has been invited as a guest composer on many occasions, including at the Arsenal de Metz, with the Orchestre National de Lyon, in Caen for the “Aspects des Musiques d’Aujourd’hui” Festival, and at the Festival de Besançon, where her piece for large orchestra Times was selected as a required piece for the final round of the International Competition for Young Conductors in 2009 and premiered by the BBC Symphony Orchestra. She was also composer-in-residence for the tenth “Présences féminines“ Festival in Toulon in 2020. Her album Visio, released in 2019 on the Solstice Label, was a selection of the Grand Prix lycéen des compositeurs in 2020.

Her work has received many awards and honors, including the International Rostrum of Composers Prize for Yell in 1990; the Prix Paul-Louis Weiller of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in 1992; a Coup de cœur de l’Académie Charles Cros for her album Moving; the SACD Jeune Talent Musique prize; and several SACEM prizes, including the Grand Prix de la musique symphonique in 2004. She was elected to the Académie des Beaux-Arts in 2005 and served as its first woman president in 2016, and the first woman composer to join the Institut de France. After directing the Conservatoire Municipal of Paris’ 15^th and 7^th arrondissements, she taught composition at the Paris Regional Conservatory until 2017. She is a Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur, Officier de l’Ordre du mérite, and a Commandeur des Arts et lettres. In 2016 she received the Grand Prix du Président de la République from the Académie Charles Cros for lifetime achievement.