Who is François Sarhan ?
by Dan Albertson



(b. September 30, 1972, Rouen). French composer of stage, chamber, choral, electronic and piano works that have been performed in Asia and Europe.

Mr. Sarhan studied composition with Brian Ferneyhough, Jonathan Harvey, Magnus Lindberg, Philippe Manoury, Tristan Murail, Guy Reibel. In addition, he studied analysis, aesthetics, cello, conducting, and harmony and counterpoint with various teachers, and followed during three years the seminars of compared poetics by Jacques Roubaud in Ecole des Hautes Etudes (Paris, 1999, 2002).

He graduated in composition at the Conservatoire National de Paris (1995) and attended a composition seminar in Szombathely (Hungary) with Brian Ferneyhoughand Marco Stroppa (1996-97) on SACEM grants and a course on composition and computers at IRCAM (1997-98). He then graduated from the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris in analysis (1999) and composition (2000).

He has attended many festivals, including Musica (Strasbourg), Donaueschingen, Wittener Musik Tagen, Ars Musica (Brussels), Berliner Festspiele, etc, etc. He also composed a chamber opera for the Aix-en-Provence Lyrical Art Festival (july 2003), as well as a first monographic CD for the french label Zig zag Territoires.

Numerous French soloists, including Nicolas Dautricourt, Céline Frisch, François Salque, Alexandre Tharaud, Dimitri Vassilakis, Vanessa Wagner, have performed his works. Ensemble Modern (Frankfurt), Ensemble Recherche, Ictus Ensemble, Ensemble Intercontemporain,
Orchestre Philharmonique de Radiofrance, among others, have also performed his works.

Mr. Sarhan has taught at IRCAM between 1998 and 2002, and at Marc Bloch University in Strasbourg since 1999. He wrote an History of Music (published in 2002 by Flammarion, Paris), and is the initiator of the artistic collective CRWTH, which is active in the performance of multimedia projects since 2000.

He is also a visual artist, encyclopedist in a surrealistic way, and makes his own show as a performer and stage director. He recently collaborated with South African artist William Kentridge on a show called Telegrams from the Nose, presented more than 30 times all over Europe.