French composer Anthony Girard was born in 1959 and studied at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris and at the Sorbonne. His creative activity sits somewhere on the fringes of the dominant currents of the contemporary classical scene, retaining a close connection to the modal possibilities of music, making him in that respect an heir to the modern French school (Fauré, Debussy, Ravel). The influences of minimalism, the work of certain Russian composers and Girard’s studies of oriental and medieval music have all played a part in the creation of his intensely personal musical universe with its often dreamlike atmosphere in which luminosity and ascending melodic lines are key elements. Poetry and mysticism are of central importance to him and are determining factors in his aesthetic orientation. Anthony Girard has taught orchestration and musical analysis at Paris Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional since 2009, and orchestration at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris since 2012.