Philippe Capdenat

Philippe Capdenat (17 July 1934 – 2 May 2025) was a French composer and academic teacher. First a mining engineer, he started composing avant-garde music, but turned to chamber music, music for the stage (opera, ballet, play music) and vocal music, using traditional instruments. He was a teacher at several French universities and conservatories. Career Born in Bordeaux, Capdenat attended special courses in mathematics in addition to his schooling, took piano lessons and conducted a youth choir. From 1954 to 1958 he studied mining engineering at the École Nationale Supérieure des Mines in Saint-Étienne, where he also took classes in piano and composition at the conservatory. He served in the military in Algeria for two years. From 1960 to 1967, he worked in Paris as an engineer, but also continued to study music, with Max Deutsch at the École Normale. He was the leader of the Chorale Jéricho and the chamber orchestra Orchestre de Chambre Philippe Capdenat. In 1967 he toured Denmark, conducting the radio orchestra of Odense. In 1968–69 he collaborated with Maurice Béjart in Brussels on the ballet Je fus cet enfant-là. In 1971, he was awarded the Hervé Dugardin Prize of the Société de