, 27 May 1970) is a composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

 and organist

Organist

An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ. An organist may play solo organ works, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumental soloists...

.

Studies

Mettraux is a graduate of the Conservatoire de Fribourg where he studied music theory

Music theory

Music theory is the study of how music works. It examines the language and notation of music. It seeks to identify patterns and structures in composers' techniques across or within genres, styles, or historical periods...

 with René Oberson, as well as piano

Piano

The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...

, violin

Violin

The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....

, and singing

Singing

Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...

. He then continued his studies in Geneva

Geneva

Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...

, including composition with Eric Gaudibert

Eric Gaudibert

Eric Gaudibert is a Swiss composer.He studied piano and composition in the conservatory of Lausanne particularely with Denise Bidal and Hans Haug, and later in Paris in the Ecole Normale de Musique with Alfred Cortot, Henri Dutilleux and Nadia Boulanger...

, conducting with Liang-Sheng Chen, and courses in early music

Early music

Early music is generally understood as comprising all music from the earliest times up to the Renaissance. However, today this term has come to include "any music for which a historically appropriate style of performance must be reconstructed on the basis of surviving scores, treatises,...

 and musicology

Musicology

Musicology is the scholarly study of music. The word is used in narrow, broad and intermediate senses. In the narrow sense, musicology is confined to the music history of Western culture...

.

Funding granted by the Kiefer Hablitzel Stiftung enabled him to undertake private tuition with or seek professional advice from Klaus Huber

Klaus Huber

Klaus Huber is a Swiss composer.Huber was born in Bern, Switzerland. One of the leading figures of his generation in Europe, he has written extensively for chamber ensembles, choirs, soloists and the orchestra as well as the theater...

, Luis de Pablo

Luís de Pablo

Luis de Pablo is a Spanish composer.He was born in Bilbao, living in Madrid from age six and starting to compose aged 12. Although he received composition lessons from Maurice Ohana and Max Deutsch, he was essentially an autodidact in composition...

, Arvo Pärt

Arvo Pärt

Arvo Pärt is an Estonian classical composer and one of the most prominent living composers of sacred music. Since the late 1970s, Pärt has worked in a minimalist style that employs his self-made compositional technique, tintinnabuli. His music also finds its inspiration and influence from...

 and Paul Méfano

Paul Méfano

Paul Méfano , is a French composer and conductor.-Biography:Paul Méfano pursued musical studies at the École Normale de Musique de Paris, and then later at the Paris Conservatory , where he was a student of Andrée Vaurabourg-Honegger, Darius Milhaud, and Georges Dandelot...

. de Pablo's assessment of Mettraux gives early recognition of his originality and style:

"You have clearly your own particular way, which has not much to do with the musical languages of most of the contemporary composers. Your love for the grand phrase, for rhetoric in the noblest sense of the term, as well as your whole musical deportment associate you with a certain 'enlightened romanticism' and general independence of mind. That is the reason for which I want to tell you this : only listen to your own voice. "

Professional Development

Mettraux began composing in 1982, and by the early 1990s was writing for a wide range of ensembles including Sonata (Nachtmusik) for solo flute (1990), Gethsemané

Gethsemane

Gethsemane is a garden at the foot of the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem most famous as the place where, according to Biblical texts, Jesus and his disciples are said to have prayed the night before Jesus' crucifixion.- Etymology :...

 for solo organ (1990), Piano sonata in one movement (1991), Racines avides (Lyrics by Luce Péclard) for voice and piano (1991–92), Symphony for chamber orchestra (Symphony No. 1) (1992), Hommage à Olivier Messiaen

Olivier Messiaen

Olivier Messiaen was a French composer, organist and ornithologist, one of the major composers of the 20th century. His music is rhythmically complex ; harmonically and melodically it is based on modes of limited transposition, which he abstracted from his early compositions and improvisations...

for solo organ (1992), Quartet of saxophone

Saxophone

The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...

s (1993), Mass

Mass

Mass can be defined as a quantitive measure of the resistance an object has to change in its velocity.In physics, mass commonly refers to any of the following three properties of matter, which have been shown experimentally to be equivalent:...

 for 8 voices à capella (1993), Sonata for trumpet

Trumpet

The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...

 and organ (1993), Adagio for violin and piano (1993), Mass for men's choir and organ ad libitum (1994), 5 Microludes for solo viola

Viola

The viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.- Form :The viola is similar in material and construction to the violin. A full-size viola's body is between and longer than the body of a full-size violin , with an average...

 (1994–97), Concerto for 15 soloist strings (1994), Concerto for piano and orchestra (1994), Fantasia for solo violin (1994–95), Miroir du silence for solo harp

Harp

The harp is a multi-stringed instrument which has the plane of its strings positioned perpendicularly to the soundboard. Organologically, it is in the general category of chordophones and has its own sub category . All harps have a neck, resonator and strings...

 (1995), Trio for violin, cello and piano (1995–96) and Vers le soleil couchant, oratorio

Oratorio

An oratorio is a large musical composition including an orchestra, a choir, and soloists. Like an opera, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias...

 (1995–96).

The Symphony for chamber orchestra mentioned above won the First Prize and the Public Prize in the first Concours pour Jeunes Compositeurs organised in 1993 by the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra

Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne

The Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne is a Swiss chamber orchestra based in Lausanne, Switzerland.The violinist and conductor Victor Desarzens founded the orchestra in 1942, and served as its first artistic director for 30 years...

, and was given its premiere performance on 1 March of the same year with the orchestra conducted by Jesús Lopéz-Cobos

Jesús López-Cobos

Jesús López-Cobos is a Spanish conductor.López-Cobos was born in Toro, Zamora, Castile-León, Spain. He studied at Complutense University of Madrid and graduated with a degree in philosophy...

. Afterwards, Lopéz-Cobos wrote:

"Laurent Mettraux is a young promising composer, following an atypical and personal way, creating free from the dogmas and fashions of contemporary music."

Critic Jean-Jacques Roth reflected similar sentiments when he wrote in Le Nouveau Quotidien of 3 March 1993:

"He is part of a new generation of musicians grown weary of formal researches, who return to the expression of their personality in contempt of the vanguards, and resort to tonality whenever they want to."

Mettraux subsequently revised the work and it was given its first performance in 1999 by the Volgograd Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Emmanuel Siffert

Emmanuel Siffert

Emmanuel Siffert is a Swiss conductor.He first studied the violin in Switzerland and in Salzburg with Sandor Végh. He studied conducting in Switzerland, Finland and in Milano with Maestro Carlo Maria Giulini. He has done several recordings with various chamber orchestras, as well with the National...

.

In 1997 Mettraux was a finalist at the Concours européen de composition chorale in Amiens

Amiens

Amiens is a city and commune in northern France, north of Paris and south-west of Lille. It is the capital of the Somme department in Picardy...

, only one of several competitions in which he has received similar recognition. There he presented his two works, First Lamentations for Maundy Thursday

Maundy Thursday

Maundy Thursday, also known as Holy Thursday, Covenant Thursday, Great & Holy Thursday, and Thursday of Mysteries, is the Christian feast or holy day falling on the Thursday before Easter that commemorates the Last Supper of Jesus Christ with the Apostles as described in the Canonical gospels...

 for mixed choir and Lucis Creator optime for children's choir.

In 1998 he received a grant from the Stiftung Künstlerhaus Boswil, and in the same year his work Ombre for orchestra won the prize at the prestigious Donaueschinger Musiktage

Donaueschingen Festival

The Donaueschingen Festival is a festival for new music that takes place every October in the small town of Donaueschingen...

. The jury included Wolfgang Rihm

Wolfgang Rihm

Wolfgang Rihm is a German composer.Rihm is Head of the Institute of Modern Music at the Karlsruhe Conservatory of Music and has been composer in residence at the Lucerne Festival and the Salzburg Festival...

, Sylvain Cambreling

Sylvain Cambreling

Sylvain Cambreling is a French conductor. Trained as a trombone player, he studied at the Paris Conservatoire. He joined l'Orchestre Symphonique de Lyon as a trombonist in 1971. In 1974, he took second prize in the International Besançon Competition for Young Conductors...

, Gérard Grisey

Gérard Grisey

Gérard Grisey was a French composer of contemporary music.-Biography:Gérard Grisey was born in Belfort, France on 17 June 1946. He studied at the Trossingen Conservatory in Germany from 1963 to 1965 before entering the Conservatoire de Paris...

 and Christian Wolff

Christian Wolff

Christian Wolff may refer to:* Christian Wolff , German actor* Christian Wolff , German composer* Christian Wolff , American composer of experimental classical music...

. The first performance of Ombre was given on 17 October 1999 by the SWR Symphony Orchestra conducted by Cambreling.

UBS Kulturstiftung awarded Mettraux with funding in 2000 on the grounds that he had made an "outstanding contribution to musical life in Switzerland and abroad."

Right from those early years, Mettraux received many commissions and wrote a number of other works. One major composition, the Concerto for 15 soloist strings, for example, was commissioned by Tibor Varga

Tibor Varga

Tibor Varga was a Hungarian violinist and conductor....

 for the opening concert of the Tibor Varga Festival which took place onon 12 July 1994. As Varga explained:

After I had heard a work by Laurent Mettraux, I have spontaneously written to him, asking him to compose a work for my orchestra. The “Concerto pour 15 soloist strings” (1994) was the result of my demand, a work of exceptional quality. The innovative ideas, the subtleties, the contrasts, everything contributes in forming a work of perfect homogeneity. It requires from the musicians a great sensibility, an important mastery of the instrument, without appealing to a mathematician’s austerity nor to the manual capacity of a circus artist. The musicians have played this work with very great pleasure; the reaction of the public was spontaneous, enthusiastic. I hope to have the pleasure to listen to and to interpret more works by Laurent Mettraux.

In 1996 the Fribourg University Choir commissioned Mettraux to write his oratorio, Vers le soleil couchant for soloists, choirs and orchestra and this was given its premiere on 1 June that year in Fribourg. That year he also completed his Trio for violin, cello and piano which had been commissioned by the Jeunesses Musicales de Fribourg for Trio Animæ which gave the first performance in 1999 at the Bratislava Festival of Contemporary Music.

Involvement with Varga recurred in 1997 when Mettraux was commissioned to write his Violin Concerto No. 2 to celebrate the following year the sesquicentenaries of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848

Hungarian Revolution

Hungarian Revolution may refer to:* The Hungarian Revolution of 1848.* The Hungarian Revolution of 1919, which led to the formation of the Hungarian Soviet Republic headed by Béla Kun.* The Hungarian Revolution of 1956....

 and the establishment of Switzerland as a Federal State under a new Constitution., The premiere was given in Budapest

Budapest

Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...

 on 1 October of that year with Isabelle Lambelet as soloist, and the Camerata Budapest conducted by Varga. In that same year, 1997, he was commmissioned by the Chamber Choir of Fribourg University

University of Fribourg

The University of Fribourg is a university in the city of Fribourg, Switzerland.The roots of the University can be traced back to 1582, when the notable Jesuit Peter Canisius founded the Collège Saint-Michel in the City of Fribourg. In 1763, an Academy of law was founded by the state of Frobourg...

 to write Crucifixion for mixed choir à capella, and this was given its premiere at the Greifswald Festival in Germany followed by a performance in Stettin, Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

, both in June of that year.

By 1999, demands for Mettraux's works had increased. Le Cocyte for orchestra was commissioned by the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia

Pro Helvetia

The foundation Pro Helvetia is a public foundation of Switzerland, held by Confédération Suisse.-Presidents:*From 1939 to 1943, Heinrich Häberlin.*From 1944 to 1952, Paul Lachenal.*From 1952 to 1964, Jean-Rodolphe de Salis....

 for an arts festival celebrating the centenary of the Association Suisse des Musiciens, and first performed at St. Moritz on 2 September 2000 by the Bern Symphony Orchestra conducted by Luca Pfaff; Radio Suisse Romande

Radio Suisse Romande

Radio suisse romande is an enterprise unit within public-broadcasting corporation SRG SSR. It is responsible for the production and transmission of French-language radio programmes in Switzerland...

 commissioned the Violin Concerto No. 3 for the 2000 Concours International de Violon Tibor Varga, and the first performance was given by Ryoko Yano with the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra conducted by Varga's son, Gilbert.

Other works commissioned in 1999 included a String Quartet requested by Jeunesses Musicales Gruèriennes for the Talich Quartet

Talich Quartet

The Talich Quartet is a Czech string quartet founded in 1964, widely regarded as a leading chamber ensemble and winner of several Grand Prix du Disque awards.- Personnel :Violin I* Jan Talich, Sr. * Petr Messiereur...

 and first performed in March 2003, and the Duo for flute and clarinet requested by Stiftung Künstlerhaus Boswil for the Klangforum

Klangforum Wien

The Klangforum Wien is an Austrian chamber orchestra, based in Vienna at the Konzerthaus, which specialises in contemporary classical music.Founded by composer and conductor Beat Furrer in 1985, it is run on collective principles, having no official principal conductor. Sylvain Cambreling is...

Wien

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

, this piece being premiered on 27 November 1999.

Writing for chamber ensembles continued in 2003 as commissions included a piece called Complainte for solo violin requested by Shlomo Mintz

Shlomo Mintz

Shlomo Mintz is an Israeli violin virtuoso, violist and conductor. He regularly appears with orchestras and conductors on the international scene and is heard in recitals and chamber music concerts around the world.- Awards :...

 for use as a set piece at that year's Concours International Violon Sion Valais, a Trio for clarinet, cello and piano for Trio Avalon who first performed it in April 2004 in the program of Two Days and Two Nights of New Music within Odessa

Odessa

Odessa or Odesa is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the northwest shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 .The predecessor of Odessa, a small Tatar settlement,...

's International Festival of Modern Art and then took it on tour in the Ukraine

Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

, and the completion of a Quintet for flute and strings which was written for Alexandre Magnin and the Janáček Quartet

Janácek Quartet

The Janáček Quartet is a Czech string quartet musical ensemble founded in 1947 which is still currently active.- Origins and activities :The Janáček Quartet was formed in 1947 by students of Váša Černý at the Conservatory of Brno, originally under the name JAMU Quartet. The quartet initially...

 who premiered it in September of that year.

In 2001, a new organ was built for Lausanne Cathedral

Lausanne Cathedral

The Cathedral of Notre Dame in Lausanne was built between 1170 and 1240 in the gothic style, with the western portal completed later in the flamboyant style....

 by the US builders C.B. Fisk, Inc. and Mettraux was commissioned to write an Organ concerto for use at the inauguration on 3 December 2003. The premiere was given by the Cathedral's organiste titulaire Jean-Christophe Geiser with the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra conducted by the late Jean Balissat

Jean Balissat

Jean Balissat was a composer, a professor of music and head of Swiss orchestra.-Biography:Jean Balissat was born in Lausanne, Switzerland. He studied counterpoint and harmony with Hans Haug in Lausanne. In 1954, he moved to Geneva, where he studied the orchestration of Andre-Francois Marescotti...

. This was recorded by Radio Suisse Romande and subsequently broadcast in the United States and online by American Public Media on its Pipedreams program. More recently, the concerto was given its German premiere on 18 June 2010 as part of the Bachfest Leipzig

Bachfest Leipzig

The Leipzig Bach Festival is a music festival which takes place annually in the city of Leipzig, where Bach worked as the Thomaskantor from 1723 until his death in 1750....

 (de) with soloist Michael Schönheit, and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra

Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra

The Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra is one of the the oldest symphony orchestras in the world...

 conducted by Riccardo Chailly

Riccardo Chailly

Riccardo Chailly, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI is an Italian conductor. He started his career as an opera conductor and gradually extended his repertoire to encompass symphonic music.-Biography:...

. On the same program, the Gewandhaus Choir and Orchestra performed a new work, Choral Variations on Vom Himmel hoch, da komm'ich her, which the Gewandhaus had commissioned from Mettraux for the festival. This work had already received its premiere separately with the same forces on 16 June.

In 2006 Mettraux won a commission through competition from the New York's Foundation for Universal Sacred Music and wrote Plus près de toi que tu ne l'es toi-même for eight soloists and an eight-part choir à capella and using a text he wrote himself. This was first performed in November of that year. Other works of that year included Stimmungen for four cellos commissioned by the Liestal

Liestal

Liestal is the capital of the canton of Basel-Country in Switzerland, south of Basel.It is an industrial town with a cobbled-street Old Town.-History:...

 festival called Viva Cello, a Suite for three flutes written for Les Chemins de Traverse, Serenata in chiaroscuro for solo organ commissioned by the Bümplizer

Bümpliz-Oberbottigen

Bümpliz-Oberbottigen is a Stadtteil of the city of Bern, Switzerland. It is situated to the west of the city center and consists of the Quartiere Bümpliz, Oberbottigen, Stöckacker, Bethlehem and Brünnen....

 Orgelserenaden for their 20th season and first performed by Erwin Messmer, Émergences for violin and accordeon performed by Marianne Piketty and Pascal Contet at Les Musicales de l'Abbaye d'Aubérive

Aubérive

Aubérive is a commune in the Marne department in north-eastern France.-See also:*Communes of the Marne department...

that year,

Pro Helvetia returned with another commission in 2007, this time requesting a work for the Basel Sinfonietta, and Mettraux wrote for them a work entitled La Mort sur un cheval pâle which was given its first performance in May 2008.

External links

• http://www.laurentmettraux.com/