Francis Dhomont was born in Paris in 1926. He studied composition under Ginette Waldmeier, Charles Koechlin and Nadia Boulanger. In the late 1940s he intuitively discovered with magnetic wire what Schaeffer would later call musique concrète, consequently conducting solitary experiments with the musical possibilities of sound recording. In 1963 he decided to leave instrumental writing behind, dedicating himself exclusively to electro-acoustic composition, becoming an ardent proponent of the then new genre of "acousmatics." His work consists exclusively of tape pieces using natural, or "found" sounds, exploring morphological interplay and the ambiguities between sound and the images it may create. Performances in public of his music are done using the French "diffusion" technique over multiple loudspeakers. Dhomont's work has won many international awards including at the Bourges International Electroacoustic Music Competition (France), the Magisterium Prize in 1988, Prix Ars Electronica in 1992 (Linz, Austria) and others. In 1997, as the winner of the Canada Council for the Arts' Lynch-Staunton Prize, he was supported by the DAAD (Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst) for a residence in Berlin. He was also awarded a prestigious career grant by The Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec. Dhomont is the editor of several electronic music journals, and has produced many radio programs for Radio-Canada and Radio-France. From 1978 to 2005, he divided his time between France and Québec, where he taught at the Université de Montréal from 1980 to 1996. He now lives in Avignon (France) and regularly presents his works in France and abroad. |
