Iannis Xenakis

Iannis Xenakis (born 29 May 1922, Brăila, Romania - died 4 February 2001, Paris, France) was a Romanian-born Greek-French composer, music theorist, architect and engineer. Was married to [a1453929].

He is regarded as one of the most radical and important composers of the twentieth century. He formulated a theory of stochastic music in the early 1950's, and in late 1954 he was accepted as a member of the Groupe De Recherche De Musique Concrète. He later joined [a1770847]. He pioneered the use of computers for musical composition in 1961. As an architect, he worked with [a3023062] and designed the Philips Pavilion for the Brussels World's Fair in 1958. In 1963, he published Musique Formelles, a collection of his articles relating music, architecture, and mathematics. In 1972, he founded CEMAMu (Centre d'Etudes de Mathématique et Automatique Musicales) in Issy-les-Moulineaux, just outside of Paris. He has composed for a wide range of instrumental ensembles and solos, and his 'polytopes', sound and light spectacles, have been performed in a number of localities, including: Persepolis (1971), Paris (1972), Mycénes (1978) and again in Paris (1978).