Gérard Pesson was born in 1958 in Torteron (in the Centre-Val de Loire region of France). Following studies of humanities and musicology at the Sorbonne, and later at the Paris Conservatoire (CNSMDP), he founded Entretemps, a periodical dedicated to contemporary music, in 1986. He was a resident at Villa Medici from 1990 to 1992, and has received prizes from the Toulouse Studium International (1986), Opéra Autrement (1989), the UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers (1994), the Prince Pierre de Monaco Foundation (1996), and the Berlin Academy of the Arts (Music Prize in March 2007).

Pesson’s works have been performed by numerous European ensembles and orchestras, including Ensemble Fa, 2e2m, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Itinéraire, Ensemble Modern, Klangforum Wien, Ensemble Recherche, Ictus, Alter Ego, Accroche Note, Erwartung, the Lyon and Ile-de-France National Orchestras, and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.

His opera Forever Valley, commissioned by T&M, with a libretto by Marie Redonnet, was premiered in April 2000 at the Théâtre des Amandiers in Nanterre (near Paris). In 2004, his book Cran d’arrêt du beau temps was published by Éditions Van Dieren. His opera Pastorale after L’Astrée by Honoré d’Urfé, a commission of the Stuttgart Opera, was premiered in concert form in May 2006 (staged version premiered in June 2009 at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris). His piano concerto Future is a faded song was premiered in 2012 by Alexandre Tharaud and the Zurich Orchestra, Pierre-André Valade conducting.

Pesson’s scores have been published by Éditions Henry Lemoine since 2000, and by Maison ONA since 2014. A monographic CD of his works, performed by Ensemble Fa, was released in 1996 on the Accord/Una corda label. Mes béatitudes, a second monographic CD, performed by Ensemble Recherche and released on the Æon label in 2001, was awarded a prize by the Charles Cros Academy. A CD recording of Forever Valley was released in 2003 on the Assai label.

Gérard Pesson has taught composition at the Paris Conservatoire (CNSMDP) since 2006. In June 2018, he was a guest artist at the ManiFeste Academy and Festival, during which five of his works were performed by Marion Tassou (soprano) and Instant Donné. In 2021, still for Ircam’s ManiFeste festival, he composed the music for the Musique-Fiction program Un pas de chat sauvage on the short story by Marie NDiaye, read by Jeanne Balibar, a device designed for the ambisonic dome, consisting of 64 loudspeakers.