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Michel Merlet (26 May 1939 – 3 May 2026) was a French composer and pedagogue.
| This article needs more citations. (May 2026) |
Michel Merlet (26 May 1939 – 3 May 2026) was a French composer and pedagogue.
Michel Merlet was born in Saint-Brieuc, France in 1939. Merlet studied music at the Conservatoire de Paris, where his teacher was Tony Aubin. There he won prizes for harpsichord, chamber music, counterpoint, fugue, musical composition and musical analysis (in Olivier Messiaen's class). From 1978, he taught fugue there, succeeding Yvonne Desportes at this post. He won the Grand Prix de Rome in 1966.
In 1979, he was in charge of teaching music writing at the International Japanese Summer Academy, and from 1985, he taught writing, orchestration, analysis and composition in China at the Shanghai Conservatory and the Beijing Conservatory. He was a professor of composition at the École Normale de Musique de Paris and at the Schola Cantorum de Paris. In 1995, invited to Greece, he taught composition and orchestration at the Athens Conservatoire. In 2001, the "European American Musical Alliance" commissioned him to conduct masterclasses for students at several universities in the United States, including the Juilliard School.
His music was championed by the French pianist Jean-Claude Pennetier.
Merlet was a member of the juries of numerous international competitions, including the Long-Thibaud-Crespin Competition.
Merlet died in Soisy-sous-Montmorency on 3 May 2026, at the age of 86.
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