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After being a child actor between seven and twelve (he was young Mozart in Marcel Bluwal's television film), Karol Beffa (b. 1973) continued his general and musical education. Admitted to and graduated from the Ecole Normale Supérieure first of his class, he studied history (BA), English (MA), philosophy (M.Phil. Cantab.) and mathematics. He is also a graduate of the Ecole Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Administration Economique.
He entered the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris in 1988 where he obtained seven First Prizes (harmony, counterpoint, fugue, music of the 20th century, orchestration, analysis and piano improvisation) and the Prize for vocal accompaniment. After winning first place in the national competitive examination for recruitment in music education, he taught at the Université Paris 4-Sorbonne and later at the Ecole Polytechnique. In 2003 he obtained a doctorate in musicology and in 2004 he became Associate Professor at the Ecole Normale Supérieure. |
As a pianist, Karol Beffa was seven times soloist with an orchestra. He frequently accompanies silent movies at the Musée d'Orsay concert hall, the Forum des Images, the Cinéma du Panthéon, etc.
His compositions have been performed in France (Salle Pleyel, Théâtre du Châtelet, Auditorium Olivier Messiaen, etc.), in Germany, in Italy, in Great Britain, in Russia, in the U.S.A. and in Japan by ensembles such as A Sei Voci, Maîtrise de Radio France and orchestras like the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Orchestre de l'Opéra de Lyon, the Orchestre de Bretagne, the Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire, the Orchestre de Pau. In 2000 he was selected to be the composer representing France at the International Biennale of Young Artists in Turin (BIG Torino 2000). In 2002 he was the youngest French composer performed at the Présence festival in Paris. In 2006-2009, he will be composer in residence of the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse.
He was a prizewinner of the Fondation Lili et Nadia Boulanger (2001), a grant holder of the Académie musicale de Villecroze and a prizewinner of the Fondation Natexis (2002) and Fondation Charles Oulmont (2005). In 2005 and 2007, he was a finalist at the Prades International Composition Competition. |