Laurent Mettraux

27.05.1970

Born in Fribourg (Switzerland), Laurent Mettraux studied at the "Conservatoire de Fribourg" (musical theory with René Oberson, piano, violin and singing) and in Geneva (composition with Eric Gaudibert, conducting with Liang-Sheng Chen). He also attended courses in early music and musicology. He was awarded the grant of the Kiefer Hablitzel Foundation (Swiss Association of Musicians). He benefited from the master classes and good avice of Klaus Huber, Luis de Pablo, Arvo Pärt, Paul Méfano et. al.
In 1993 he received the 1st prize and the prize of the public at the first competition for young composers organised by the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra. He was finalist in the Concours Européen de Composition Chorale (Amiens) and laureate of several foundations. In 1998 he was awarded the prize of the prestigious festival "Donaueschinger Musiktage" for his work for orchestra "Ombre", which was chosen from more than 80 competition entries (in the jury were: Wolfgang Rihm, Gérard Grisey, Christian Wolff, Sylvain Cambreling). In 2000 he was honoured with ad personam grant for his "remarkable contribution to the musical life in Switzerland and abroad".
He wrote numerous works and commissions for interpreters, concert associations, festivals, radios and foundations. His compositions are being played increasingly in Switzerland and abroad. His style is appreciated as much by specialists of contemporary music as it is by musicians and the general public. He is one of the youngest composers whose biography has been published in the International Who is Who in Music and Musicians Directory since the publication of the 16th edition in 1998.
His works have been performed in numerous countries all over the world and by a big number of famous interpreters like: the Quatuor Talich, Tibor Varga, Jesus Lopez-Cobos, Sylvain Cambreling, Francisco Araiza, the Zürcher Streichtrio, the New London Chamber Choir. Amongst his more recent works are: an oratorio for the Swiss National Exhibition; "Complainte" for solo violin, comissioned by Shlomo Mintz and to be the compulsory piece at the "Concours International de Violon de Sion"; a choral work, comissioned by winning the award of the Foundation for Universal Sacred Music of New York; "Emergences" for violin and accordion, premiered by Marianne Piketty and Pascal Contet; a double concerto for the violin player Boris Lischvitz and the famous pipa player Yang Jing; a quintet for flute and strings for Alexandre Magnin and the Quatuor Janacek; a concert for organ on the occasion of the inauguration of the new organ at the Lausanne Cathedral, which is to be replayed by the Leipzig "Gewandhaus Orchester" under Riccardo Chailly in 2008.

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