Tabachnik, Michel (EN)

Tabachnik Michel, *10 November 1942 Geneva, Swiss composer and conductor. He studied theory of music and orchestral conducting at the Geneva Conservatory; in 1964, he took part in the Darmstadt Summer Courses, and in 1965, he studied under P. Boulez at the Musikakademie in Basel. In 1966, he was assistant to I. Markevitch, and in 1967–71 to P. Boulez. He held the positions of principal conductor of the Gulbenkian Foundation Orchestra in Lisbon (1973–75), of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Lorraine in Metz (1975–81), of the Ensemble InterContemporaine in Paris (1976–77); he was also an artistic director of the Orchestre des Jeunes de la Méditerranée (1984–2004), which he founded, and of the Orchestre des Jeunes in Quebec (1985–89). He also conducted many famous orchestral ensembles, including the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Tokyo NHK Symphony Orchestra (Nippon Hoso Kyokai), and led performances in opera houses in Paris, Geneva, Lisbon, Rome, Montreal, and, since 1983, regularly at the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto. From 1984 to 1991, he was a professor of conducting at the Faculty of Music at the University of Toronto, and from 1993 to 2001 at the Det Kongelige Danske Musikkonservatorium in Copenhagen; he also led master classes in Amsterdam, at the Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon, and at the conservatories in Paris and Stockholm, among others. He was a member of the Sun Temple sect; after the mass suicides of its members in the mid-1990s, he was charged, but acquitted in 2001. In 2006, the Court of Appeal in Grenoble upheld the acquittal. From 2005 to 2011, Tabachnik was principal conductor of the Noord-Nederlands Orkest (NNO) in Groningen. In 2008, he was appointed principal conductor and artistic director of the Flemish Radio Orchestra (Vlaans Radio Orkest). From 2008 to 2015, he was the music director and principal conductor of the Brussels Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1995, he was awarded the title of artist of the year by the Centro Internazionale di Arte e Cultura in Rome.

Tabachnik gained fame as a conductor primarily for his performances of contemporary music. He gave the world premieres of works by I. Xenakis, P. Boulez, A. Boucourechliev and G. Grisey. Recordings under his direction cover a wide repertoire, from Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony through works by 19^th-century composers and artists of the turn of the 19^th and 20^th centuries to avant-garde works and his own works. Tabachnik’s compositional output, stylistically quite strongly dependent on P. Boulez, represents a variety of musical genres – works for large instrumental ensembles (Movimenti), chamber and piano works, as well as vocal compositions, among which the 5-part Le pacte des onze stands out, with a tape part recorded in the IRCAM studio, and referring in its aesthetics to spectral music.

Literature: L. Moss Keyboard Music by S. Nigg, M. Tabachnik, H.U. Lehmann, M. de Manziarly, “Notes” XXIX, 1973; M. Tabachnik Ma Rhapsodie, Paris 2016 (memories).