Jean-Claude Risset was a musician and researcher of acoustics. Following years of training as a pianist (including studies with Robert Trimaille, himself a former student of Alfred Cortot), and with a potential career as a performer before him, he gradually turned to composition in the years from 1961 to 1964. Subsequently, André Jolivet arranged for him to study music theory with Suzanne Demarquez. In parallel with studies of music at the Paris École Normale Supérieure, in 1961 he obtained a degree, and in 1967, a doctorate, in physics, after which he embarked upon a career in electronics.

Rapidly gaining an international reputation, he undertook research at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), the Pierre Grivet Fundamental Electronics Institute (1961-71), Bell Laboratories in New Jersey alongside Max Mathews and John Pierce (1964-65 and 1967-68), Paris-Saclay University (1970-71), Luminy University City in Marseille (starting in 1972), IRCAM (1975 to 1979), and, finally, at the CNRS Laboratory of Mechanics and Acoustics in Marseille, where he remained a professor emeritus.

Risset was a true pioneer of computer music, a fact attested to by his revolutionary work at Bell Laboratories on psychoacoustics and digital synthesis (most notably, his simulations of musical instruments, sonic illustrations and musical paradoxes) and its application to music.

He was invited to numerous scientific and musical research institutions around the world, including CCRMA at Stanford University (where he worked alongside fellow musician/researcher John Chowning) in 1971, 1975, 1982, 1986, and 1998; the Bregman Electronic Music Studio at Dartmouth College (with Jon Appleton); and the MIT Media Lab in 1987 and 1989 for work on the Yamaha Disklavier. Jean-Claude Risset was a lecturer from 1971 to 1975, and a full professor from 1979 to 1985, at Aix-Marseille University. He was Director of the “Computer Department” at IRCAM from 1975 to 1979, and National Director of the Master of Advanced Studies (DEA) in “Acoustics, Signal Processing and Digital Technology Applied to Music,” a degree offered by IRCAM in collaboration with the University of the Mediterranean and Paris VI University.

Risset’s scientific research consistently informed his artistic activities, and vice versa. His catalogue, comprising more than 70 works, includes some 15 pieces for fixed media (produced at Bell Laboratories, IRCAM, LMA-CNRS, etc.), acousmatic music (produced at Ina-GRM, GMEM, etc.), around 20 instrumental pieces and 35 mixed music works (some with real-time electronics), a medium to which he devoted much of his creative energy. These works allowed Risset to formalise his notion of first “composing sounds themselves,” and then composing with those sounds.

Awards, Grants, and Prizes

• First Prize in the UFAM Piano Competition (1963)
• Philips Prize for Francophone Acousticians (1967)
• Dartmouth Electroacoustic Competition (1970)
• First Prize in the “Digital Music” Category at the Bourges International Electroacoustic Music Competition (1980)
• Ars Electronica Prize (Golden Nica, Austria, 1987)
• “Euphonie d’or” (1992)
• Prix Magisterium (1998) from IME Bourges
• SACEM “Grand Prix” for Orchestral Music (1981)
• National “Grand Prix” of Music (1990)
• Doctorate Honoris Causa from Edinburgh University (1994) and from Universidad de Cordoba (2000)
• Musica Nova Prague Prize (1995)
• EAR Prize from Hungarian Radio (1997)
• Magisterium Prize from IEM Bourges (1998)
• CNRS Gold Medal (1999)
• Commander of Arts and Letters (2006) and Knight of the Legion of Honour (1989)
• “Qwartz of Honour” Pierre Schaeffer (2008)
• Giga-Hertz-Hauptpreis for Electronic Music (2009)
• René Dumesnil Prize from the French Academy of Fine Arts (2011)