As a composer, theorist and conductor, Pierre Boulez (1925, Montbrison) is one of the leading figures in the landscape of postwar European music. He started out by studying mathematics in Lyon, but in 1943 left for Paris, where he applied to the Conservatoire against the express wishes of his father. In 1946, he was appointed on the recommendation of Honegger as musical director of the Compagnie Renaud-Barrault, a position which laid the foundation for his later career as a conductor. In his compositions from the latter half of the 1940s, he brought the influences of Messiaen, twelvetone technique and particularly the work of the late Webern to a synthesis. His Structures Ia (1951) for piano were the highpoint and simultaneously the endpoint of the total serialism of the Darmstadt School, which cleared the way for a more inventive approach to the principles of serialism, for example in his early masterpiece Le marteau sans maître (1953-1955). He explicated his views in various publications, such as Penser la musique aujourd’hui (1964) and Relevés d’apprenti (1966), and was a pioneer of the use of electronics in music. A typical characteristic of Boulez’s way of working was that he frequently revised his compositions, often over long periods of time, such as in the case of Pli selon pli. In the early 70s, he was invited by President Georges Pompidou to look into the possibility of a musical research centre, which ultimately led to the establishment of the Institut de Recherche et de Coordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM) with Boulez as its director.

Boulez was musical advisor to the Cleveland Orchestra from 1970 to 1972, chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra from 1971 to 1975, and musical director of the New York Philharmonic from 1971 to 1977. He is conductor emeritus of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and in the last several years has stood in front of the Berliner and Wiener Philharmonikers, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris, the Ensemble intercontemporain and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. In 2005, he began working in collaboration with the Staatskapelle Berlin. Boulez is particularly famous for his exemplary interpretations of classics from the 20th century repertoire, of composers such as Debussy, Mahler, Bartók, Varèse, Schoenberg, Webern, Berg and Stravinsky, but also has frequently conducted new works by contemporary composers as well as the works of nineteenth-century giants like Beethoven, Schumann, Berlioz and Wagner. From 1976 to 1995, Boulez held the chair ‘Invention, technique et langage en musique’ at the prestigious Collège de France. In 2002, he received the Glenn Gould Award. In 2007, Boulez opened the Holland Festival with his conduction of the opera From the House of the Dead. In that same edition, he also conducted the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, which performed works by Schoenberg, Bartók and Stravinsky. On 17 June 2010 Boulez was awarded the Edison oeuvre-award (in Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ, Amsterdam).