Laurent Cuniot was born in Reims in 1957. He started his musical studies at the Conservatoire National de Région in his native town before enrolling in the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse (CNSMP) in Paris as a violin, chamber music, analysis and harmony major.
In 1976 he joins Pierre Shaeffer’s and Guy Rebel’s composition and music research class which was held at the CNSMP as well as at the Groupe de Recherche Musicale.
He completed his training with Russian conductor Yuri Simonov during his master classes in Miskolc (Hungary) on orchestral conducting.
In 1977 Laurent Cuniot took over the GRM+ Trio with Denis Dufour and Yann Geslin, previously founded by François Bayle, the GRM (Groupe de Recherche Musicale ) Director. The Trio aims to explore the invention of new electronic musical devices during live performance.
In 1978 he became Guy Reibel’s assistant before taking over the class as a Tenured Professor in 1991 together with Luis Naon and Yann Geslin.
In 1986 he decided to turn the Trio into the TM+ Ensemble becoming its Music Director. He progressively consolidated it into one of the most outstanding French orchestral ensembles geared to musical creation. At that time he also wrote several pieces nourished by his dual practice; composition and electroacoustic music: L’exil au miroir for six male voices and tape, the chamber opera Cinq pieces pour Hamlet, and La Lice des nuits for full orchestra (including two synthesizers).
From 1987 to 1992 he worked for Radio France as a producer. He proposed and organized several series of concert-lectures: Public concert broadcasts on the analysis and interpretation of compositions from the Middle Ages to our time.
Since 1994 Laurent Cuniot was invited to conduct several well-known orchestras and chamber ensembles. In 2000 he left his post as a Professor at the Parisian Conservatory CNSMDP to refocus on composing and on the development of the TM+ Ensemble which, thanks to his innovating leadership, was offered a steady residency at the Maison de la Musique in Nanterre since 1996.
The presence of new technologies’ influences in his early works, kept on being a determining factor in approach of the phrasing, the energy and the orchestration of his music. And even if his harmonic language is strongly influenced by Spectral School, his recent works such as Spring and All for voice and ensemble, Ombrae for oboe/English Horne and ensemble and To deep and Deeper Blue for eight musicians, placed the expressive power of contemporary writing at the service of drama in sound.
Laurent Cuniot was awarded several composition prizes: In 1983, 1989 and 2006 by the SACEM (Composers and Music Publishers Copyrights Society) and in 2009 the Tornov-Loeffler Prize by the Academie des Beaux Arts.
Since 2013 he has been teaching composition at the Regional Conservatory in Rueil-Malmaison.
His music is published by Salabert / Universal Classical Music.
Photo : © Sylvia Vasimova