Pierre Boulez: A Timeline

Key Dates

1925
Bom in Montbrison, France.

1943
Enters the Paris Conservatoire, where he studies harmony with Georges Dandelot and, later, Olivier Messiaen.

1946
Asked by Jean-Louis Barrault and Madeleine Renaud to play ondes martenot in the score for their production of Hamlet. Becomes the Musical Director of their company for ten years.

1950
First performances of his Second Piano Sonata and the cantata Le soleil des eaux.

1953
Founds the ‘Domaine musical’ series of concerts at the Petit Marigny Theatre.

1955
First experience as a conductor, with Arnold Schoenberg’s Serenade.

1957
London debut, playing Structures I with Yvonne Loriod at Wigmore Hall.

1962
BBC Proms premiere of Le marteau sans maître with conductor Basil Cameron – the first time the LSO performs Boulez’s music.

1963
Conducts 50th-anniversary performance and recording of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring.

1965
Celebrates 40th birthday, conducting first performance of Éclat in Los Angeles.

1967
Debut performance with the LSO at the Royal Festival Hall, conducting Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique. Appointed guest conductor of Cleveland Orchestra.

1969
Becomes Principal Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, a position he holds until 1975.

1970
Conducts the LSO in the first British performance of Mahler’s ‘Waldmärchen’ from Das klagende Lied.

1971
Becomes Chief Conductor of the New York Philharmonic.

1976
Founds Ensemble intercontemporain, an ensemble dedicated to the performance of contemporary music. Conducts centenary Ring Cycle at Bayreuth.

1977
Opening of IRCAM, an institute specialising in research into music and sound, of which Boulez is Director.

1979
Conducts the premiere of the three-act version of Alban Berg’s Lulu at the Paris Opéra.

1980
Premiere of first four orchestral Notations by Orchestre de Paris under Daniel Barenboim, Paris.

1985
60th birthday festival at Baden-Baden. First performance of Dérive in London, conducted by Oliver Knussen.

1995
70th birthday tour with the LSO, including concerts in London, Paris, New York, Vienna, Linz and Tokyo. Co-founds La Cité de la Musique in Paris.

2000
Conducts world premieres of works by George Benjamin, Olga Neuwirth, Péter Eötvös and Salvatore Sciarrino with the LSO.

2002
Appointed composer-in-residence at the Lucerne Festival, later co-founding the Lucerne Festival Academy in 2004.

2004
Conducts a series of concerts at the Barbican, Essential Boulez, celebrating his long association with the LSO.

2008
Final performance with the LSO, conducting Towards Osiris by Matthias Pintscher at the Barbican.

2015
Receives a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

2016
Dies at his home in Baden-Baden.