Jean-Claude Amiot
b. 1939
French
Biography
Born in Vichy on October 18th 1939, Jean-Claude Amiot is a French composer, music professor and conductor. His studies began at the Le Mans Music Conservatoire, playing the violin, beginning piano lessons some years later. He studied composition with César Geoffray in Lyon from 1955 then with Edmond Pendelton in Scola Cantorum in Paris from 1963. A year later he began working with Dimitris Mitropoulos after moving to New York City. Around this time he was encouraged to pursue a career in music by Leopold Stokowski and Leonard Berstein, whom he met whilst working in the United States.
In 1968, Amiot returned to France and was appointed as director of the Ecole Nationale de Musique in Mâcon until 1983, when he was appointed director of the Clermont-Ferrand Conservatoire national de region. He served this post until retiring aged 61 in 2000. Over his career he has written over one hundred works, including the notable choral symphony 1789, pour la Révolution (1989), Sun is working in the Sky (for orchestra, 1981), Messager des etoiles (for brass band), Voleur de lune (opera in 3 acts) and Melpormene (for Cello and Piano).
In 1968, Amiot returned to France and was appointed as director of the Ecole Nationale de Musique in Mâcon until 1983, when he was appointed director of the Clermont-Ferrand Conservatoire national de region. He served this post until retiring aged 61 in 2000. Over his career he has written over one hundred works, including the notable choral symphony 1789, pour la Révolution (1989), Sun is working in the Sky (for orchestra, 1981), Messager des etoiles (for brass band), Voleur de lune (opera in 3 acts) and Melpormene (for Cello and Piano).