Composer Prize 2025

Bastien David

Biography

Composer Bastien David is deeply fascinated by the diversity of the world and its inhabitants. Through his music, he explores all the “life forms” of sound, drawing inspiration from the delicate relationships that sounds create with each other, as well as their ability to evolve across time and space.

David is the recipient of the Hervé Dugardin Prize and was a fellow at the Villa Medici in Rome (2019–2020), where he developed his microtonal metallophone. At the invitation of the Bavarian State Ministry of Science and the Arts at the Villa Concordia in Bamberg (2022–2023), he composed Chlorophyll Synthesis for the Ensemble intercontemporain and Radio France, which premiered at the Radio France Auditorium to open the Présences festival. As a fellow at the Casa de Velázquez (2023–2024) in Madrid, he composed Je suis Orage as a prelude to his piece le Bal. This piece, commissioned by the Ensemble intercontemporain, will premiere at the Cité de la Musique – Philharmonie de Paris in the fall of 2026. The evening will feature rhythms and harmonic illusions, and the Ensemble intercontemporain will perform together with Bastien David’s ensemble Les Insectes, his metallophone, and another newly invented musical instrument designed specifically for this event.

Bastien David studied composition under Bernard Cavanna and José Manuel López López at the Conservatoire de Gennevilliers before becoming a student of Gérard Pesson at the Conservatoire National Supérieur Musique et de Danse in Paris. His music, published by Éditions Henry Lemoine, is performed by numerous ensembles and orchestras worldwide, including Ensemble intercontemporain, l’Orchestre Geneva Camerata, Orchestre d’Auvergne, TM+, Instant Donné, Court-circuit, 2e2m, la Main Harmonique, l’Ensemble Orchestral Contemporain, Zafraan-Ensemble, and Quatuor Diotima. His works have been performed all over the world, most recently in Japan, China, England, Italy, Germany, Spain, Monaco, Luxembourg, Mexico, and Argentina. His piece Phaedra for the actress Fanny Ardant, which premiered in Geneva, and the commission Bec et Ongles for violinist Renaud Capuçon, marked key milestones in his career, fostering both artistic growth and enriching human connections.

Les Métamorphoses, a choreographic and sonic experiment centered around his metallophone, was performed by his company Les Insectes in France and internationally, appearing in museums, gardens and other unconventional venues. The hypnotic sound of the metallophone has already been heard in the auditorium of Radio France, the Musée des Arts et Métiers, the Centre Pompidou, the gardens of Bagatelle, the Parc Naturel du Perche, at the Festival Fabbrica Europa in Florence, the Villa Concordia in Bamberg, the national theaters of Châteauroux and Aubusson, the Clavier Bel-Air festival in Chambéry, the Détours de Babel festival in Grenoble, the Propagations festival in Marseille, the Générateur cultural Olympiad, the Lyon Contemporary Art Biennial, and the Conciergerie for Nuit Blanche, when more than 3,000 people came to listen to Les Insectes and the metallophone.

Like Les Métamorphoses, his new work for the Cité de la Musique, Le Bal, will embark on a tour that seeks to create meaningful encounters with audiences.

bastiendavid.com