Maurice Jarre (1924-2009), born in Lyon, studied percussion, ondes Martenot, composition (with Arthur Honegger) and conducting (with Charles Munch) at the Paris Conservatoire. Initially a timpanist at Radiodiffusion française, he joined the Compagnie Renaud-Barrault, where he was responsible, with Pierre Boulez, for the stage music (1946-1950), before becoming musical director for Jean Vilar at the TNP in the Palais de Chaillot (1951-1963).At the same time, he produced music for the ‘son et lumières’ at Chambord, Amboise and Avignon, while devoting himself to film music (among others, Georges Franju, Thérèse Desqueyroux, 1961; Alain Resnais, Toute la mémoire du monde, 1958; Jacques Demy, Le Bel Indifférent, 1958). Invited to Hollywood in 1962 for Le Jour le plus long (Zanuck) and Lawrence of Arabia (Lean), he went on to be associated with countless film productions, including Le Docteur Zhivago (Lean, 1965), Paris brûle-t-il (Clément, 1965), Le Tambour (Schlöndorff, 1979), Shogun (London, 1980) and Le Cercle des poètes disparus (Weir, 1989), winning several Oscars and Golden Globe awards.He has also written ballet music (Skibine, Les fâcheuses rencontres in 1958, Les Filles du feu in 1962; Petit, Maldoror in 1962), an opera-ballet (Armida, 1954), symphonic music (Passacaille à la mémoire d'Arthur Honegger, 1956), and a musical (Loin de Rueil, 1961, based on Raymond Queneau).