Michel Merlet

b. 1939

French

Biography

Born in Saint-Brieuc in 1939, Michel Merlet has devoted much of his life to educating others in music, as well as composing. He studied at the Paris Conservatory under Tony Aubin and Olivier Messiaen, where he obtained the prizes for harpsichord, chamber music, counterpoint, fugue, composition and musical analysis. From 1978, he taught Fugue at the Paris Conservatory and a year later, taught songwriting at the International Summer Academy of Japan. He taught orchestration, analysis and composition at the Shanghai Conservatory and Central Conservatory in Beijing in 1985. 

Merlet moved to Greece in 1995, teaching at the Athens Conservatory. He had the auspicious opportunity to teach composition to students from several univerisities in the USA, including the Juilliard School in New York, at the European American Musical Alliance. Today, Merlet sits on the panels for a range of international competitions, including the Marguerite Long Competition. He has been honoured with many awards over his career, including the Grand Prix de Rome in 1966, the National Award-Chaillou Pineau in 1966, the International Prize of Napels in 1987 and the Chevalier of Arts and Letters.