Quick Facts
Biography
Jean-Michel Damase (27 January 1928 – 21 April 2013) was a French pianist, conductor and composer of classical music.
Damase was born in Bordeaux, the son of harpist Micheline Kahn. He was studying with Marcel Samuel-Rousseau at the age of five and composing by age nine. He was admitted to the Conservatoire de Paris in 1940, studying with Alfred Cortot for piano, and won first prize for piano in 1943, afterwards studying with Henri Büsser, Marcel Dupré and Claude Delvincourt for composition - winning his first prize for composition in 1947, in which year he won the Grand Prix de Rome (In this year he wrote his trio for flute, viola and harp which has several times been recorded.)
He made the first complete recording of Gabriel Fauré's nocturnes and barcarolles, for which he received the Grand Prix du Disque.
Selected compositions
- Symphony (1952)
- Serenade for strings (1959)
- La fille mal gardée (1985) (of Peter Hertel's 1864 ballet score)
- Concerto for harpsichord or harp and small orchestra (1984)
- Concerto for viola, harp and string orchestra (1990)
- Trio for flute, cello and harp (1947)
- Trio for flute, viola and harp (1947)
- Trio for flute, hautbois and piano (1962)
- Quintet for flute, harp and string trio, op. 2 (1948)
- Aria for cello (or viola, or alto saxophone) and piano, op. 7 (1949)
- 17 variations for wind quintet, op. 22 (1951)
- Sonate en concert for flute, piano and cello (ad libitum), op. 17 (1952)
- Trio for flute, oboe and piano (1961)
- String Trio (1965)
- Sonata for clarinet and harp (1984)
- Vacances for alto saxophone and piano (1990)
- Intermède for viola and piano (1990)
- Épigraphe for viola and piano (1991)
- Ostinato for viola and piano (1991)
- Trio for oboe, horn, and piano (1993)
- Trio for two flutes and piano (1997)
- Sonata for cello and harp (2002)
- Hallucinations for viola and harp
- Pavane variée for horn and piano
- La tendre Eleonore (1958)
- Colombe (premiered 1961 Bordeaux, lyrics Jean Anouilh with Maria Murano)
- Eugène le mystérieux (1963)
- Le matin de Faust (1965)
- Madame de ... (1969)
- Euridice (premiered 1972 Bordeaux)
- L'héritière (1974)
- Term of Trial (1962)
