| Background: | person |
| Igor Wakhévitch | |
| Birth Date: | 12 May 1948 |
| Birth Place: | Gassin, France |
| Occupation: | Composer |
| Years Active: | 1970s-present |
Igor Wakhévitch (born 12 May 1948) is an avant-garde French composer. He released a series of studio albums in the 1970s and collaborated with Salvador Dalí in 1974.
Wakhevitch was born in Gassin, a small village on the French Riviera. His father is Russian-born French art director Georges Wakhévitch; his mother is the actress Marica Wakhévitch. Wakhevitch was a musical prodigy as a child, and studied piano under French composer Olivier Messiaen at the Conservatoire de Paris and classical pianist Marguerite Long.[1] [2]
His compositions are heavily influenced by avant-garde music including Igor Stravinsky and psychedelic rock bands such as Soft Machine and Pink Floyd. He was one of the first composers to use electronic keyboards.[2]
In 1974, he composed the music for Salvador Dali's opera-poem Etre Dieu (To Be God), which included a libretto by Spanish writer Manuel Vazquez Montalban.[3]
Wakhévitch is one of the musicians named on the Nurse with Wound list of outsider and avant-garde music, which has come to be an important touchstone for those interested in the genre. His composition "Materia-Prima" is included on the compilation album Strain Crack & Break: Music from the Nurse With Wound List.[4]