Jean-Michel Damase (27 January 1928 – 21 April 2013) was a French pianist, conductor and composer of classical music.

Career

Damase was born in Bordeaux, the son of harpist Micheline Kahn. He was studying piano and solfège with Marcel Samuel-Rousseau at the age of five and composing by age nine. His first work (at the age of nine) was a setting of some poems by Colette, whom he had met at a Parisian salon. In 1940, Damase began studying piano with Alfred Cortot at the École Normale de Musique. The next year, he was admitted to the Conservatoire de Paris, entering Armand Ferté’s piano classes and winning first prize for piano in 1943, afterwards studying with Henri Büsser, Marcel Dupré and Claude Delvincourt for composition and winning first prize for composition in 1947 for his Quintet for flute, harp, violin, viola, and cello. In the same year, he won the Grand Prix de Rome for his cantata Et la belle se réveilla. Meanwhile, he appeared as a piano soloist in the Colonne and Conservatoire concerts, and with the Orchestre National of the ORTF. He made the first complete recording of Gabriel Fauré's nocturnes and barcarolles, for which he received the Grand Prix du Disque.

Selected compositions

Sources