French composer Sophie Lacaze was born in Lourdes in 1963. After her musical studies at the Conservatoire National de Region de Toulouse, she went on to further studies at the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris, where she received the Composition Prize. Afterwards, she studied with Allain Gaussin, Antoine Tisne and Philippe Manoury in France, and with Franco Donatoni and Ennio Morricone at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana di Siena (Italy). She also engaged in music theatre with Georges Aperghis at the Centre Acanthes and attended Pierre Boulez's courses in College de France.

She has been developing a partnership with several music ensembles and soloists in France and abroad for more than 15 years. Her compositions, which range from works for solo instruments to chamber and orchestral music, with also two chamber operas and works with tape, are regularly performed in more than 20 countries.

Sophie Lacaze was awarded the Grand Prix Lyceen des Compositeurs (2009) for "les quatre elements", concerto for flute, children choir and small percussion instruments, and in 2010 she received the Claude Arrieu Prize of the SACEM for her body of work.


The last few years saw several premieres of her works, such as
- "deux mouvements" for tenor saxophone and orchestra, by Daniel Kientzy and Bacau Philarmonic Orchestra (Roumania - conductor Ovidiu Balan),
- "Het Lam Gods" by Quatuor Benaïm during a « Sophie Lacaze's special day», Rencontres Musicales ProQuartet in Fontainebleau,
- "Quatre haïkus" for alt-saxophone and piano, by Jean-Yves Fourmeau and Marylise Fourmeau,
- "L’espace et la flute – Variations sur des textes de Jean Tardieu" for narrator and flute orchestra, by Alain Carre and French Flute Orchestra (conductor Paul Mefano) in RadioFrance, Paris,
- "Fauvette" on a text by Jean-Pierre Rosnay, by Calliope choir (conductor Regine Theodoresco),
- "Calligrammes" for solo baritone, choir and saxophone quartet, by Jean-François Rouchon, baritone, two choirs and a saxophone quartet of Cergy Pontoise' Conservatorium (conductor Caroline Gaulon), for the 10e Rencontres Internationales de Composition in Cergy-Pontoise,
- "Marco Polo" opera on a libretto by Alain Carre, choreography by Sabine Novel.

In 2012, MEZZO TV broadcast a short film "Sophie Lacaze - composer" (Mezzo-Compo series, April 2012), the French magazine Traversieres published an article about her music for flute (n.104, Oct 2012), and Italian Foundation: Donne in Musica selected her work "cinq voyelles pour quatre flutes" for the concert given during the presentation of WIMUST project in European Parliament in Brussels (June 2012).

Besides, her new CD "Souffles" is published by the Editions de l'Astronome (December 2012).


Sophie's music is performed in leading festivals throughout France, Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, Spain, Poland, Romania, Ukrainia, Lithuania, Serbia, Greece, Brazil, USA, Japan, South Korea, Australia, in Canada, Chile, Sweden, England, Italy, Switzerland, Netherlands, by distinguished ensembles and artists such as the Orchestre Philarmonique de RadioFrance (conductor Pierre-Andre Valade), the Orchestre de Perpignan - Mediterranee and the Camerata de France (conductor Daniel Tosi), "Mihail Jora" Philarmonic Orchestra (conductor Ovidiu Balan), Romanian Radio Orchestra (conductor Horia Andreescu), Nouvel Orchestre de Chambre de Rouen (conductor Joachim Leroux), Orchestre de Flutes Francais (conductor Pierre-Alain Biget), Calliope Choir (conductor Regine Theodoresco), Appoggiature Vocal Ensemble (conductor Eliette Roche), musicians of the Orchestre National de Lyon, Arcadie Flute Quartet, Trio a Cordes de Paris, Benaim String Quartet, 3D Trio, Piano & Co, Durufle, Helios, Pleiade, Syntax and Aujourd'hui Musiques Ensembles, Tetraflutes Ensemble (Switzerland), Hinemoa Flute Quartet (Belgium), Quartetto Image (Italy), Canberra New Music Ensemble and the trio Settembrini (Australia), Aperto Trio and Pro Contemporania Ensemble (Romania), Antara flute ensemble (Chili), Pierre-Yves Artaud, Ivan Bellocq, Jean-Yves Fourmeau, Jean-Claude Gerard, Baudoin Giaux, Daniel Isoir, Daniel Kientzy, Marie Kobayashi, Yumi Nara, Nathalie Negro, Kiyoko Okada, Nadia Ratsimandresy, Christel Rayneau, Gabriella Smart, Chiharu Tachibana, Fuminori Tanada, Francoise Vanhecke, Stephen Whittington, Frederique Wolf-Michaux.

Also, her works "Voyelles" and "Trois melodies" were the subject of conferences by Patrick Quillier in Berlin (Germany) and Nice (France), in his cycle of conferences about "Music and Poetry in France in the 20th century".

She is regularly invited to give master-classes or conferences (Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Barossa Music Festival - Australia, IUFM de Tarbes, CRR in Versailles, CRR in Rouen - France, Conservatoire Royal in Brussels, Conservatoire Royal in Liege - Belgium). She teaches composition and orchestration at the University of Montpellier, and is also artistic director of the Printemps Musical d'Annecy (France).

Unsubdued but attentive to musical trends and schools, Sophie Lacaze has developed an original aesthetics that takes into account the current research on sound while looking to restore music its primary functions, ie ritual, incantation, dance, and its links with nature.