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Born in Ath in 1954, Jean-Pierre Deleuze pursued his musical studies at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels. In 1980, after winning a first prize in harmony in Jean-Marie Simonis’s class, he turned to the study of composition, which he continued under Marcel Quinet for five years.
He also completed his studies at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, winning a first prize in fugue in Jacques Leduc’s class. His participation in a 1987 workshop on musical analysis led by Olivier Messiaen significantly influenced his aesthetic direction.
His musical language was initially influenced by the late works of Alexander Scriabin, leading him to seek a “harmonically colored” music.
In “Lethamorphos XXI” (based on a poem by Jacques Crickillon, 1996), the use of quarter tones constitutes an initial exploration of microtonal writing. From “Ellipsen” (trio for clarinet, violin and piano, 1998, a work for which the Royal Academy of Belgium awarded him the Irène Fuerison Prize), the use of untempered sounds is more precisely part of the deployment of a mode resulting from the alignment of harmonic sounds. In general, in his latest works, “his writing evolves towards a contemplative imagination, notably in “Espaces Oniriques”” [Christophe Pirenne in “Les musiques nouvelles en Wallonie et à Bruxelles”, ed. Mardaga]. The influence of the spectral aesthetics of Giacinto Scelsi and Tristan Murail and that of oriental conceptions is increasingly marked; This is particularly evident in “Four Haiku, Poetic Evocations for Organ” (premiered in Sapporo in 2004) and “Âlap” (2005), for bansuri, arpeggione, and guitar.
A professor of composition since 1989 and of advanced composition since 2002 at the Royal Conservatory of Mons, he has developed an original pedagogy based on the rational study of the syntax, techniques, and styles of great composers, from Renaissance and Baroque forms to the techniques of various 20th-century composers. He also taught musical analysis at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel during the 2001–2004 academic year. In January 2007, he was elected a member of the Royal Academy of Belgium.