Isabelle Aboulker Composer

Biography

Isabelle Aboulker was born in 1938 into a convergence of artistic influences: her grandfather, Henry Février, was a composer, and her father, Marcel Aboulker, a filmmaker and writer.

Alongside her studies in composition and accompaniment at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, she composed for film, theater, and television.

An accompanist and vocal coach, and from 1983 to 2003 a professor working with young singers at the CNSM in Paris, she received such enthusiastic reception for her early operatic works that it confirmed the consistency of her stylistic approach—rooted in a French tradition dear to Debussy, Ravel, and Poulenc—marked by careful attention to prosody and rigorous choice of libretti.

Excerpts from her catalog, revealing her passion for voice and lyric art, include works that, due to their melodic and dramatic qualities, have often been revived: in the opera houses of Geneva, Lyon, Rennes, Limoges, Toulon, Marseille, Avignon, as well as in conservatories, middle and high schools, and even kindergartens.

Leçons de Français aux Étudiants Américains (commissioned by Jean-Claude Malgoire for the Atelier Lyrique de Tourcoing – 1983); Passeport musical pour Paris (commissioned by Mstislav Rostropovich for the Evian Festival – 1990); 1918, L’homme qui titubait dans la guerre, oratorio (commissioned by Louis Langrée for the Orchestre de Picardie – 1998); Les Enfants du Levant (commissioned by CRÉA d’Aulnay-sous-Bois – 2001); Douce et Barbe-Bleue (commissioned for the Maîtrise de Radio France – 2002); Jeremy Fisher (commissioned by the Debussy Quartet for the Maîtrise de l’Opéra de Lyon – 2007); Myla et l’Arbre-bateau (commissioned by the Académie musicale de Villecroze for kindergartens – 2015); L’Enorme Crocodile and Un Amour de Tortue, based on texts by Roald Dahl (commissioned by Gallimard Jeunesse – 2017); Olympe la rebelle (commissioned by the city of Montauban for the Conservatoire de musique – 2018); Hugo, Zola et la Baronne (commissioned by the Orchestre National d’Auvergne and the CRR de Paris – 2019); Voyage musical en Misogynie, de Molière à la Cocotte-minute (commissioned by the CRR de Paris – 2022); Archipel(s) (commissioned by the Opéra-Comique – 2024); Martin Squelette (commissioned by CRÉA – 1995, new adaptation in 2025).

Her career as a composer has been marked by numerous distinctions, including the Music Prize of the Académie des Beaux-Arts (1999), the Music Prize of the Société des Auteurs et Compositeurs Dramatiques (2000), the Musical Education Prize from the Chambre Syndicale des Éditeurs de Musique de France (2016), being named Chevalier in the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the Ministry of Culture (2018), and the Grand Prize for the Youth Repertoire from the Société des Auteurs, Compositeurs et Éditeurs de Musique (2021).

Currently in

Immerse in the Paris Opera universe

Corporate Partnerships