Michael Jarrell (born 8 October 1958) is a Swiss composer and academic teacher, whose operas, such as '' Cassandre'', have been performed internationally.

Life

Born in

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Situa ...

, Jarrell studied at the

Geneva Conservatoire , neighboring_municipalities= Carouge, Chêne-Bougeries, Cologny, Lancy, Grand-Saconnex, Pregny-Chambésy, Vernier, Veyrier , website = https://www.geneve.ch/ Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; ...

, and later with

Klaus Huber Klaus Huber (30 November 1924 – 2 October 2017) was a Swiss composer and academic based in Basel and Freiburg. Among his students were Brian Ferneyhough, Michael Jarrell, Younghi Pagh-Paan, Toshio Hosokawa, Wolfgang Rihm, and Kaija Saariaho ...

Freiburg Freiburg im Breisgau (; abbreviated as Freiburg i. Br. or Freiburg i. B.; Low Alemannic: ''Friburg im Brisgau''), commonly referred to as Freiburg, is an independent city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. With a population of about 230,000 (as o ...

. His works span many genres. In 1982, he won first prizes for composition and went on to win many more, including the Acanthes Prize in 1983, the Beethovenpreis awarded by Bonn in 1986, the Marescotti Prize (1986), both the Gaudeamus International Composers Award and the Henriette Renié prizes in 1988, and the Siemens-Förderpreis (1990). From 1986 to 1988, he was resident at the Cité des Arts in Paris, taking part in the computer music course at

IRCAM IRCAM (French: ''Ircam, '', English: Institute for Research and Coordination in Acoustics/Music) is a French institute dedicated to the research of music and sound, especially in the fields of avant garde and electro-acoustical art music. It is ...

. His next residency was at the Villa Médici (1988–89), home of the

French Academy in Rome The French Academy in Rome (french: Académie de France à Rome) is an Academy located in the Villa Medici, within the Villa Borghese, on the Pincio (Pincian Hill) in Rome, Italy. History The Academy was founded at the Palazzo Capranica in ...

, followed by membership of the Istituto Svizzero di Roma in 1989–90, after which he became composer-in-residence at the Orchestre de Lyon (October 1991–June 1993). In 1993, Jarrell was appointed professor of composition at the

University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna The University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (german: link=no, Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien, abbreviated MDW) is an Austrian university located in Vienna, established in 1817. With a student body of over three thousa ...

. In 1990, he established some of the bases of

Computer Music Computer music is the application of computing technology in music composition, to help human composers create new music or to have computers independently create music, such as with algorithmic composition programs. It includes the theory and ...

. In 2016, the composition problem he proposed was successfully solved using a

Constraint programming Constraint programming (CP) is a paradigm for solving combinatorial problems that draws on a wide range of techniques from artificial intelligence, computer science, and operations research. In constraint programming, users declaratively state t ...

.Mauricio Toro, Carlos Agon, Camilo Rueda, Gerard Assayag.
GELISP: A FRAMEWORK TO REPRESENT MUSICAL CONSTRAINT SATISFACTION PROBLEMS AND SEARCH STRATEGIES
" Journal of Theoretical and Applied Information Technology 86 (2). 2016. 327-331. In 1996, he became composer-in-residence at

Lucerne Festival Lucerne Festival is one of the leading international festivals in the world of classical music and presents a series of classical music festivals based in Lucerne, Switzerland. Founded in 1938 by Ernest Ansermet and Walter Schulthess, it curren ...

, while the 2000 Musica Nova Helsinki festival was dedicated to him. In 2001, the

Salzburg Festival The Salzburg Festival (german: Salzburger Festspiele) is a prominent festival of music and drama established in 1920. It is held each summer (for five weeks starting in late July) in the Austrian town of Salzburg, the birthplace of Wolfgang Ama ...

commissioned a piano concerto entitled ''Abschied'' (Farewell). The same year, Jarrell was made a Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters. In 2004, he was named professor of composition at the higher Academy of Geneva. He is regarded throughout Europe as one of the most important Swiss composers of his generation. His "spoken opera" '' Cassandre'', which is based on Christa Wolf's novel ''

Cassandra Cassandra or Kassandra (; Ancient Greek: Κασσάνδρα, , also , and sometimes referred to as Alexandra) in Greek mythology was a Trojan priestess dedicated to the god Apollo and fated by him to utter true prophecies but never to be belie ...

'', was premiered in Paris in 1994 and performed at the

Ojai Festival The Ojai Music Festival is an annual classical music festival in the United States. Held in Ojai, California (75 miles northwest of Los Angeles), for four days every June, the festival presents music, symposia, and educational programs emphasizin ...

, CA, in June 2008.

References

External links

* * *
Michael Jarrell at Musinfo
– List of works and short bio 1958 births Living people Swiss classical composers 20th-century classical composers Gaudeamus Composition Competition prize-winners Swiss male classical composers Ernst von Siemens Composers' Prize winners Musicians from Geneva 20th-century male musicians 20th-century Swiss composers {{Switzerland-composer-stub