After pursuing graduate studies in Art and Archaeology and Philosophy at the Sorbonne, Edith Canat de Chizy successively obtained six premiers prix at the Paris Conservatoire including one in composition. She became initiated into electro-acoustic music with Guy Reibel at the Conservatoire and the Groupe de Recherches Musicales (GRM). A student of Ivo Malec's, in 1983 she had a decisive encounter with Maurice Ohana to whom she, with François Porcile, would devote a monograph in 2005 (Ed. Fayard).
The catalogue of this trained violinist, presently boasting more than 100 opus numbers, concertante music occupies a special place: Moïra, cello concerto, noticed in 1999 by the Fondation Prince Pierre of Monaco ; the following year, Exultet, violin concerto premiered in 1995 by Laurent Korcia, was nominated for the Victoires de la Musique awards; Les Rayons du Jour, viola concerto, was first performed in February 2005 by Ana Bela Chaves and the Orchestre de Paris conducted by Christoph Eschenbach and lastly Missing, his second violon concerto, created by the Orchestre National de France le 23 Mars 2017.
Amongst other notable works, most of them written to commissions by the State, Radio-France, the Orchestre de Paris, IRCAM, and ensembles (Musicatreize, Solistes XXI, Nederlands Kamerkoor, Sequenza 9.3, Accentus, TM+ et al.), one will note in particular her vocal pieces, works for strings (three quartets) and symphonic scores including Omen, first performed in October 2006 by the Orchestre National de France, Pierre d’éclair (March 2011, Orchestre National de Lyon) as well as her works with electronics Over the sea, premiered on May 11, 2012 at the Festival Manifeste of IRCAM and Visio, February 9, 2016 at the Festival Presences of RADIO-FRANCE.
She has been in residence several times, in particular at the Besançon Festival where Times, for large orchestra, was the compulsory work for the finale of the International Competition for Young Conductors in 2009 and first performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
Numerous distinctions have crowned her works: Prize of the International Composers Tribune (for Yell, 1990), Paul-Louis Weiller Prize of the Académie des Beaux-Arts (1992), Coup de cœur of the Académie Charles Cros for her CD Moving, and several prizes awarded by SACEM, including the Grand Prize for Symphonic Music in 2004.
Elected at the Académie des Beaux-Arts in 2005, president of this Academy in 2017, Edith Canat de Chizy is the first woman composer member of the Institut de France. After having directed the Conservatories of 15è and 7è Art in Paris, she has taught composition at the Paris Regional Conservatory until 2017. She is Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur, Officier de l'Ordre du Mérite and Commandeur des Arts et Lettres.
In 2016, she was awarded the Grand Prize of the President of the Republic by the Académie Charles Cros.
His music is published by Durand and Salabert / Universal Classical Music.