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Artist
Igor Wakhévitch
12+ albums
Avant-Gardeexperimentalcontemporary classicalfrenchelectronic
about
Igor Wakhévitch born May 12, 1948, Provence, France, son of the art director Georges Wakhévitch, was an avant-garde French composer who released a series of studio albums in the 1970s and composed the music for the Salvador Dalí opera Etre Dieu. He was a contemporary of similar avant-garde, electronic composers, such as Pierre Henry, who was also born and based in Paris. He is a relatively unknown composer but gained a small cult following through praises from Nurse with Wound (on the list of influences in their first album), Michael Gira of Swans and a review of one of his studio albums by Dominique Leone for a feature on Pitchfork Media entitled "It Was the Strangest Record I Had Ever Heard". From the age of eight, he learnt to play piano under the tutelage of Louise Clavius-Marius and Lucette Descaves. Between the ages of 12 to 17, he studied at the Conservatoire de Paris. During this time, he was auditioned by Herbert von Karajan for a concert at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, and in 1965 won the Jury's First Prize for Piano (by a unanimous vote). In 1967, studying under Olivier Messiaen, he won the first prize in Musical Analysis. In 1968, he worked for the GRM in the Office de Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française, under the direction of Pierre Schaeffer. Igor Wakhévitch was a part of the 1960s atmosphere of musical integration and boundary crossing ; he was friends with Maurice Béjart, who encouraged him to compose for contemporary dance companies, and studied with
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