Biographie / Biography
Independent but attentive to musical trends and schools, composer Sophie Lacaze has developed a personal and original aesthetic that aims to restore music to its primary purposes, such as ritual, incantation, and dance, as well as its connections to nature, with timbre playing a central role. It was during her first trip to Australia, in 1996, that she discovered Aboriginal culture. Since then, she has emphasized a return to the very essence of musical art and fundamental purity.
The sounds of nature, then those of the planets and moons in our solar system – derived from transformations of electromagnetic waves captured by NASA probes – have gradually become her main sources of inspiration.
After earning an engineering degree, Sophie Lacaze turned to music. She graduated in composition from the École Normale de Musique de Paris and continued her studies in Italy with Franco Donatoni (composition) and Ennio Morricone (film music) at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana di Siena. She also attended courses by Pierre Boulez at the Collège de France and explored musical theater with Georges Aperghis at the Centre Acanthes. In 2002, she was invited to Australia for a several-month residency at the Electronic Music Unit of the University of Adelaide.
A laureate of several international competitions (Italy, Romania, United Kingdom), as well as the Beaumarchais-SACD association (2012), she was the first woman to receive the Grand Prix Lycéen des Compositeurs (2009) and the Claude Arrieu Prize from SACEM (2010). In 2023, she was named one of the « 100 Femmes de Culture », a distinction highlighting inspiring and creative voices among Francophone women in culture.
In 2025, her catalogue includes about 100 works, ranging from solo pieces to orchestral compositions, three operas, and mixed works. They are performed by orchestras such as the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire, the Orchestre de Perpignan Méditerranée, the Orchestre National d’Auvergne (France), the BBC Symphony Orchestra (UK), the Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra (Luxembourg), I Solisti Veneti (Italy), the Orchestra Națională Radio and the Orchestra Filarmonica Mihail Jora (Romania), the Orquesta de Cámara PUCV (Chile), as well as numerous soloists, instrumental and vocal ensembles.
Her music has also been featured on about 15 CDs (France, Germany, Romania, Australia, USA), including four monographs, and has been the subject of numerous articles and a documentary produced by Mezzo TV (2012). In 2018, the book ‘Sophie Lacaze, Portrait of a Composer – Dialogues with Geneviève Mathon’ was published by Editions Delatour. The English version was released in May 2021.
Sophie Lacaze is also a committed artist who champions classical and contemporary music. She created and for several years directed the Printemps Musical d’Annecy, a multidisciplinary festival partly dedicated to musical creation. She later directed the Turbulences Sonores Festival in Montpellier and the Musiques Démesurées Festival in Clermont-Ferrand.
In March 2013, she founded, with pianist Nathalie Négro, the French Association of Women Composers, Plurielles 34, which she chaired until September 2020.
She taught music history and composition at Paul Valéry University in Montpellier for about twelve years and regularly gives lectures on classical and contemporary music.