Born in Le Havre in 1947, Tristan Murail studied classical Arabic and North African Arabic at the National School of Living Oriental Languages, and obtained a degree in economics, while pursuing musical studies. In 1967, he entered the National Conservatory of Music in Paris in the class of Olivier Messiaen, as well as the Institute of Political Studies in Paris, from which he graduated three years later. In 1971, he received the Prix de Rome, then obtained a First Prize in composition from the Conservatoire de Paris. He then spent two years in Rome, at the Villa Medici.

On his return to Paris in 1973, he co-founded the Itinéraire ensemble with a group of young composers and instrumentalists. The Ensemble quickly obtained wide recognition for its fundamental research in the field of instrumental performance and real-time electronics.

In the 1980s, Tristan Murail used computers to deepen his research in the analysis and synthesis of acoustic phenomena. He developed a personal composition assistance system on a microcomputer, then collaborated for several years with the Ircam where he taught composition from 1991 to 1997 and participated in the design of the computer-assisted composition program "Patchwork". In 1997, Tristan Murail was appointed Professor of composition at Columbia University in New York, where he taught until 2010.

Now back in Europe, he continues to give master-classes and seminars all over the world, was Guest Professor for three years at the Mozarteum University of Salzburg, and is currently Visiting Professor at the Shanghai Conservatory.

Translated from French