Pascal Dusapin, born on May 29, 1955 in Nancy, was introduced to music at an early age. After hearing a jazz trio while on vacation with his family, he returned home with a longing to learn the clarinet. His father, however, insisted on piano lessons. When he was 10, Dusapin discovered the organ, an overwhelming passion that would carry him through his chaotic and unconventional adolescence. Growing up part time in a small village in the Lorraine and part time in a Parisian suburb, he embraced all genres with equal fervour, as enthusiastic about Bach as about the Doors, loving free jazz as much as Beethoven. But when he first heard Arcana by Edgar Varese at the University of Vincennes when he was 18, his life was transformed. From that moment, he knew that he would devote all of his time and energy to composition. From 1974 to 1978, he studied devotedly with Iannis Xenakis, whom he considered to be the modern descendant of Varese. Xenakis became his master in thinking differently, broadening his horizons to include architecture and mathematics. This was really his only formal education, probably because Xenakis asked for nothing and gave him everything. 

Dusapin’s first pieces, Souvenir du silence (1975), Timée (1978) were appreciated by the two composers, Franco Donatoni and Hughes Dufourt, and they gave him their full support. André Boucourechliev gave him precious advice and the mottos that would accompany him throughout his career: “Never forget the instrument at the back of the orchestra.” and “Sincerity is never a virtue in art.” 

In 1977 he won the Fondation de la Vocation prize and in 1988 he received an award from the Villa Médicis where he was resident for two years while he wrote Tre Scalini, Fist, and his first Quatuor, Niobé. He returned from Rome more determined than ever to live while composing and to compose while living. In the summer of 1986, he wrote Assaï for Dominique Bagouet’s ballet company. Their collaboration was rich, both personally and artistically, and the tour of Assaï led him to travel the world for several years.