At the Conservatoire de Paris, Philippe Hersant pursued a double-major in composition in André Jolivet’s studio and literature, winning the writing prize. From 1970 to 1972, he was a fellow at the Casa de Velázquez in Madrid and later at the Villa Medici in Rome from 1978 until 1980. A producer at the radio station France Musique from 1973 to 2005, he possesses a knowledge of music that stretches across many genres.

Hersant has been composer-in-residence at the Orchestre National de Lyon (1998-2000), Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire (2007-2009), Orchestre de Bretagne (2008-2010), Festival des Forêts (2015-2018), Besançon International Music Festival (2016-2018), Cité de la Voix in Vézelay (2016-2018), and Aspects des Musiques d’aujourd’hui Festival in Caen (2017).

A lover of literature, Hersant has put many texts to music. These have included works by Jules Verne in Le château des Carpathes (The Carpathian Castle — an opera twice nominated at the Victoires de la Musique awards); Anton Chekhov in Le Moine noir (The Black Monk), with a libretto by his brother, historian Henri Hersant; Jean Echenoz in Éclairs (Lightning); Friedrich Hölderlin in Lebenslauf (Résumé); and Arthur Rimbaud in Allégories and Illuminations.

Since The Carpathian Castle, Hersant expressed a strong interest in voice, which is visible in his large output of pieces for voice and instruments, as well as in pieces such as Niggun, which is historically a genre of Jewish religious music, a hymn of praise without lyrics. In this case the vocal part is performed by a bassoon.

Hersant’s involvement in Festival Ombres et Lumières in Clairvaux from 2011 to 2016 was a key moment in his career. During this period, he worked with inmates from the Clairvaux Prison. From this collaboration came texts written by the inmates, which went toward several choral pieces: Instants limites (Boundary Moments), Métamorphoses (Metamorphoses), and Kitoo. This project was also the subject of the documentary Revenants (Returnees) by Julien Sallé.

Hersant has an excellent aural memory, and he thinks of composition as coming from melodies that arise from memory and naturally lead to quotation. He finds this to be particularly the case with religious music. Himself a non-believer, Hersant’s memories of the genre go back to childhood, and so his experience of composing religious music calls upon collective memory and myth. He is interested, following the words of André Boucourechliev, in themes as they pass through the filter of memory, distorted in the mind’s eye of the composers who remember them, without becoming pastiche. Hersant likens this compositional process to that of Luciano Berio for Voci in which Berio blends Sicilian folk songs with his own language.

In 2004, Hersant was the headliner at the Radio France’s Présence festival. Between 2006 and 2017, he fulfilled three mandates as administrator of the French copyright collective Société des Auteurs et Compositeurs Dramatiques (SACD), where he presided over the music commission on three occasions. He is a board member of the vocal ensemble Aedes, La Tempête vocal and instrumental company, and the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris. He is also Chairman of the Association Jeunes Talents and of the Fondation d’Entreprise Banque Populaire’s Music Jury.

Hersant has also written several film scores, notably for Nicolas Philibert: Un animal, des animaux (Animals and More Animals, 1994), Être et avoir (To Be and to Have, 2001), and Nénette (2009), to name but a few.

Hersant is Commandeur des Arts et Lettres.

Prizes and awards

• Composer of the Year from Victoire de la Musique Classique, 2005, 2010, 2016
• Prix Musique awarded by the SACD, 2014
• Grand Prix Lycéen des Compositeurs, 2012
• Fondation Del Duca awarded by the Académie des Beaux-Arts, 2001
• Grand Prix de la Musique Symphonique awarded by SACEM, 1998
• Maurice Ravel Prize, 1996
• Prix du Syndicat de la Critique Musicale et Dramatique, 1994
• Arthur Honegger Prize, 1994, for the Concerto for Cello and Chamber Orchestra
• SACEM composers prize, 1991
• Grand Prix musical de la Ville de Paris, 1990
• SACEM best contemporary creation prize for String Quartet No. 1, 1986
• Georges Enesco Prize, 1982
• Nadia Boulanger Prize, 1970