Jean-Louis Petit (born 20 August 1937) is a French

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

, conductor and

organist An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ (music), organ. An organist may play organ repertoire, solo organ works, play with an musical ensemble, ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumentalist, instrumental ...

. He studied composition with Georges Moineau and organ with Arsène Muzerelle at the ''Conservatoire de Reims'' before he studied under

Simone Plé-Caussade Simone-Marie Plé-Caussade (14 August 1897, Paris – 6 August 1986, Bagnères-de-Bigorre) was a French music pedagogue, composer and pianist. She wrote mainly works for solo piano and organ in addition to choral works, songs, chamber music, and ...

and

Olivier Messiaen Olivier Eugène Prosper Charles Messiaen (, ; ; 10 December 1908 – 27 April 1992) was a French composer, organist, and ornithologist who was one of the major composers of the 20th century. His music is rhythmically complex; harmonically ...

at the ''

Conservatoire de Paris The Conservatoire de Paris (), also known as the Paris Conservatory, is a college of music and dance founded in 1795. Officially known as the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (CNSMDP), it is situated in the avenue ...

''. He joined courses in conducting with

Léon Barzin Léon Eugene Barzin (November 27, 1900April 19, 1999) was a Belgian-born American conductor and founder of the National Orchestral Association (NOA), the oldest surviving training orchestra in the United States. Barzin was also the founding mu ...

at the

Schola Cantorum The Schola Cantorum de Paris is a private conservatory in Paris. It was founded in 1894 by Charles Bordes, Alexandre Guilmant and Vincent d'Indy as a counterbalance to the Paris Conservatoire's emphasis on opera. History La Schola was founded i ...

, Franco Ferrara in Venice, Igor Markevitch in Madrid, Monaco und Santiago, Chile and

Pierre Boulez Pierre Louis Joseph Boulez (; 26 March 1925 – 5 January 2016) was a French composer, conductor and writer, and the founder of several musical institutions. He was one of the dominant figures of post-war Western classical music. Born in Mont ...

in Basel. Petit won the Dimitris Mitropoulos Competition in New York in 1968. He founded many orchestras in France and conducted the ''Orchestre de Reims'', with which he traveled to Belgium and Germany. They have been recorded by radio stations many times. He was guest conductor to orchestras around the world, including the '' Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France'', the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, the

Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra The Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra (french: Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, OPMC) is the main orchestra in the Principality of Monaco. The orchestra gives concerts primarily in the Auditorium Rainier III, but also performs at the Salle ...

, the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the

Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia The Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia (Orchestra of the National Academy of Santa Cecilia) is an Italian symphony orchestra based in Rome. Resident at the Parco della Musica, the orchestra primarily performs its Rome concerts in ...

Symphony New Brunswick Symphony New Brunswick is the largest classical music organization in the province of New Brunswick. It is based in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada. The orchestra was founded in 1983 following the demise of the Halifax-based Atlantic Symphony Orc ...

, the '' Orchestre de Paris'' and the

Cairo Symphony Orchestra The Cairo Symphony Orchestra, ( ar, اوركسترا القاهرة السيمفونى; ''Orkestra el-Qāhera el-Semfōni''), is an orchestra based in Cairo, Egypt. It was founded in 1959 by its first music director and conductor, Franz Litschaue ...

. Petit signed with

Decca Records Decca Records is a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis (Decca), Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934 by Lewis, Jack Kapp, American Decca's first president, and Milton Rackmil, who later became American ...

in 1964 and conducted the series Collection Grand Siècle. Soloists were

Jean-Claude Malgoire Jean-Claude Malgoire (25 November 1940 – 14 April 2018) was a French oboist and later conductor. Early life Malgoire was born on 25 November 1940 in Avignon, France. His mother was born in Italy. Malgoire graduated from the Paris Conservatory ...

Michel Portal Michel Portal (born 27 November 1935) is a French composer, saxophonist, and clarinetist. He plays both jazz and classical music and is considered to be "one of the architects of modern European jazz". Early life Portal was born in Bayonne on ...

, Olivier Alain and others. From 1972 to 1975 he was director of the Festival Estival de Paris. Petit founded the ''Atelier Musique'' in Ville-d'Avray to perform

contemporary classical music Contemporary classical music is classical music composed close to the present day. At the beginning of the 21st century, it commonly referred to the post-1945 modern forms of post-tonal music after the death of Anton Webern, and included seria ...

. In 1979 he started the ''Festival de Musique Française de Ville d'Avray''. One of the guests was

Pierre Seghers Pierre Seghers (5 January 1906, in Paris – 4 November 1987, in Créteil) was a French poet and editor. During the Second World War he took part in the French Resistance movement. Career He founded, among other things, the famous line of boo ...

. In 1997 his work contained more than 250 compositions.

External links

jeanlouispetit.com

{{DEFAULTSORT:Petit, Jean-Louis 1937 births 20th-century classical composers French classical organists French male organists French classical composers French male classical composers French male conductors (music) Conservatoire de Paris alumni Schola Cantorum de Paris alumni Living people 20th-century French composers 20th-century French conductors (music) 21st-century French conductors (music) 21st-century organists 20th-century French male musicians 21st-century French male musicians Male classical organists