Jean-Claude Eloy is a French composer, born in 1938. He studied at the Paris National Superior Conservatory of Music, where he won First Prizes in Piano, Chamber Music, Counterpoint, Ondes Martenot, and studied composition with Darius Milhaud. He attended summer courses at Darmstadt (Pousseur, Scherchen, Messiaen, Boulez, Stockhausen) and was a student in composition in Pierre Boulez’ master class at the Music Academy in Basel (1961-1963).

Works by Jean-Claude Eloy have been performed all over the world. They have been conducted by Pierre Boulez, Ernest Bour, Michael Guilen, Bruno Maderna, Diego Masson, Michel Tabachnik, Arthur Weisberg and others ... He has lived in the United States (professor at the University of California, Berkeley, in the sixties), Germany (invited by the WDR studios in Cologne, the Technische Universität in Berlin, guest artist at the Berliner Künstlerprogramm), Holland, Japan (where he collaborated with NHK and the National Theater of Japan, among other activities). He participates regularly in numerous international festivals, principally in Europe, but also in Asia, the United States, Canada and Latin America as sound-projectionist for his electro-acoustic works and with the soloists closely associated with his compositions : Fatima Miranda (vocalist), Yumi Nara (soprano), Michael Ranta (percussionist), Junko Ueda (Shômyô singer and Satsuma-Biwa player), Kôshin Ebihara and Kôjun Arai (Buddhist monk singers), Mayumi Miyata (Shô player), etc...

“ ... A solitary composer who has managed one of the most significant syntheses of 20th century music (between electronic and acoustic music, but also between Western and non-European traditions), Eloy tackles and convincingly solves an essential problem of our time : the relationship to the other, to the stranger, to what is different, not so much as an object of curiosity, admiration or submission, but as a vitalizing source of creative inspiration”.

“The New Grove Dictionary of Music”, 1998, Dr. Ivanka Stoïanova
(translated by Meredith Escudier)

Main works :

- "Etude III" (1962), for orchestra (20') ;
- "Equivalences" (1963), for 18 instrumentalists (10') ;
- "Faisceaux-Diffractions" (1970), for 28 instrumentalists (25') ;
- "Kâmakalâ" ("The Energy Triangle ", 1971), for three orchestra groups, five choir groups, three conductors (approximately 32' ) ;
- "Shânti" ("Peace", 1972-73), for electronic and concrete sounds (1h45', WDR Elektronische Musik Studio, Cologne) ;
- "Fluctuante-Immuable" (1977), for large orchestra (20') ;
- "Gaku-no-Michi" ("The Ways of Music", translated also as the “Way of Sounds”,1977-78), a film without images for electronic and concrete sounds (3h50', NHK Electronic Music Studio, Tokyo) ;
- "Yo-In" ("Reverberations",1980), sound theatre for an imaginary ritual, with a character-percussionist, electroacoustics, lighting (3h40' in 4 acts, Instituut voor Sonologie, Utrecht) ;
- "Etude IV" (1979), electroacoustic, UPIC - computer with graphic interface - (20') ;
- "A l'Approche du Feu Méditant" (“Coming Close to a meditating fire”,1983), for 27 instrumentalists from the "Gagaku" orchestra in Japan, and two Buddhist monk choirs from the Shingon and Tendai sects (2h30'), with six percussionnists ;
- "Anâhata" ("Primal Vibration", 1984-86), for two voices of soloist Buddhist monks singers, three instrumentalists from the "Gagaku" orchestra, percussion, electroacoustics, lights (3h45') ;
- "Butsumyôe" and "Sappho Hikètis" ("The Ceremony of Repentance", "Sappho imploring", 1989), for two female voices (extended vocal techniques), electroacoustics (1h00') ;
- "Erkos" ("Song, Praise", 1990-91), for a Satsuma-Biwa soloist and vocalist ("Shômyo" techniques), with electroacoustics (1h05', WDR Elektronische Musik Studio, Cologne) ;
- "Two American Women" (1996), for two female voices (singing-speaking techniques), with electroacoustics ;
- " … kono yo no hoka …" (" … this world beyond …", 1996), solo-voice (extended vocal technics, beyond the "Shômyô" ones; 30') ;
- "Galaxies" (1996), electroacoutics, with vocal solo (1h15')

Main performances :

Works for orchestras – choruses – large chamber ensembles ;
"Domaine Musical" concerts, Paris (1962, 1963, 1964) ; Darmstadt festival ; Donaueschingen festival (1963) ; Copenhague (ISCM, 1964) ; "Monday Evening Concerts", Los Angeles (1965) ; New York (Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, 1965) ; Stockholm (ISCM, 1966) ; "Musica Viva", San Francisco ; "Das Neue Werk", Hamburg (NDR) ; "Reconnaissance des Musiques Modernes" (RTB), Brussels ; Concertgebouw, "Actuele Muziek", Amsterdam ; Library of Congress - Coolidge festival, Washington (1970) ; festival des SMIP, Paris (1971) ; London (BBC Round House, 1974) ; "Begegnung mit Indien", Cologne (WDR, 1975) ; Paris (Orchestre de Paris, 1977) ; festival de La Rochelle (1978) ; "Pan-Music" festival, Tokyo ; "Perspectives du XXe siècle", Paris (Radio-France) ; "Music Today", Tokyo (1979) ; National Theatre of Japan (Kokuritsu Gekijo), Tokyo (1983) ; "Présences 2000" (INA-GRM, Radio-France), Paris (2000) ; etc.

Works with varied soloists and electroacoustics ;
Festival d'Automne de Paris (Paris Autumn Festival, 1974, 1979, 1986, 1989, 1992) ; "Musik der Zeit", Cologne (1981) ; Paris (“Musique en Théâtre”, 1981) ; “Festival d'Avignon” (1981) ; "Sigma", Bordeaux (1980, 1986, 1996) ; Brussels (festival de Wallonie, 1983) ; "Holland Festival", Amsterdam (1984) ; Tsukuba, "Expo 85" (Japan 1985) ; "Musica", Strasbourg (1985, 1991) ; "Inventionen", Berlin (1985, 1992) ; Donaueschingen festival (1990) ; "Almeida" festival, London (1990) ; "Warsaw Autumn Festival", Warsaw (1994) ; Lyon ("Musique en scène", 1997) ; Grenoble (38e Rugissants, 1996) ; Dijon ("Why Note", 2002) ; etc.

Electroacoustic works ;
festival de Royan (1974) ; London (Round House - London Music Digest, 1975) ; Los Angeles (Vanguard Theater, 1975) ; Berkeley ("Arch Street concerts", 1975) ; Austin (University-Museum) ; Yale (University-Church) ; Kyoto (1977, 1979) ; Zagreb ("Muzicki Biennale", 1978) ; Toronto ("New Music Concerts") ; Montreal (SMCQ, 1977 - "Pulsar" 2006) ; Chicago (Museum of Contemporary Art) ; Utrecht (Geertekerk, Instituut voor Sonologie, 1978) ; Sâo Paolo (Museu de Arte) ; Rio de Janeiro (Salle Cecilia Mereles) ; Hong-Kong (City Hall) ; Bandung ; Jakarta ; Utrecht (Geertekerk, Instituut voor Sonologie, 1980) ; Paris (INA-GRM, Radio-France, 1982) ; Berlin (“Inventionen”, Zeiss-Grossplanetarium, 1992) ; Grenoble (“38e Rugissants”, Grande Bibliothèque, 2001) ; Cologne (University, 2001) ; Taipei (“Sounding-Taipei”, 2004) ; etc.