Michel Legrand

Born in Paris in 1932 and died in 2019, Michel Legrand built a rare career at the crossroads of film music, jazz, song, and orchestral writing. Trained at the Conservatoire de Paris, notably with Nadia Boulanger, he began as an arranger in the 1950s before also establishing himself as a pianist, conductor, and composer. His work then moved between revisited standards, orchestral jazz, and popular music, with albums such as I Love Paris (1954), Holiday in Rome (1955), Legrand Jazz (1958) and Legrand in Rio (1958). Michel Legrand takes a central place in French cinema of the 1960s by collaborating with Agnès Varda, Jean-Luc Godard and especially Jacques Demy, for whom he wrote the scores of Lola (1961), The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Les Parapluies de Cherbourg) (1964), The Young Girls of Rochefort (Les Demoiselles de Rochefort) (1967) and Peau d’Âne (1970). Later, partly settled in the United States, Legrand also composed for Hollywood and notably wrote the music for The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), Summer of ’42 (1971) and Yentl (1983). His style combines a singing melody, jazz-infused harmonies, a sense of counterpoint, and a taste for both popular and scholarly forms. Over the decades, Legrand also pursued concert activity, musical theater, and writing for the stage, while remaining a regular presence in jazz and chanson.