Thérèse Brenet

Thérèse Brenet, born in Paris in 1935, is a French composer whose work is distinguished by its search for new timbres and instrumental resources. She trained at the Paris Conservatoire, where she won first prizes in harmony, counterpoint, fugue and composition, and her teachers included Rivier, Dutilleux, Duruflé and Milhaud.

She won the Prix de Rome in 1965 and has received other international awards since then. In 1970 she became a professor at the Paris Conservatoire, the institution where she had been a student.

Her language is eclectic. It rests on a non-serial atonal writing, into which she frequently incorporates aleatoric techniques. She is interested in instrumental timbres obtained through bold superimpositions, as well as microtonal intervals and extended instrumental techniques, such as the multiphonics of woodwind instruments. Among her unconventional scoring choices is the use of the Celtic harp and other rarely used instruments, reflecting a constant desire to widen the sonic range of her music.

The voice occupies a central place in her output. Clamavit, a work for narrator, choir and orchestra commissioned by Radio France, was chosen to represent France at the UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers and has been performed frequently abroad. Her principal works also include concertos for piano, violin and cello, and numerous chamber pieces, in which she maintains an exploratory and personal writing style.