Raymond Alessandrini, a French pianist, composer, orchestrator, and conductor, was born in Koblenz, Germany. He is particularly renowned for his prolific career in film music as well as for his compositions for the concert hall. He began studying piano at the age of five and pursued an outstanding classical education at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris in Pierre Sancan’s class, where he earned a first prize in piano in 1966 and a first prize in chamber music in 1967, while also completing advanced studies in music composition. He then embarked on a career as a soloist and joined the Trio de France during the 1970s. The year 1969 marked a historic turning point when he met composer Michel Magne, for whom he became the orchestrator. This collaboration opened many doors for him in Parisian studios, where Raymond Alessandrini was in high demand as a pianist. Thus, during the 1970s, he recorded for such giants of film music as Georges Delerue, Elmer Bernstein, Lalo Schifrin, and Alfred Newman.

It was through Georges Delerue that he landed his first gig for a television movie, Les Joies de la famille Pinelli; Delerue himself was unable to take on the project since he had just moved to Los Angeles. He composed the music for the films Chobizenesse and Deux heures moins le quart avant Jésus-Christ by Jean Yanne, and later wrote most of the scores for Jean-Charles Tacchella’s films, including Travelling avant, Escalier C, L’homme de ma vie, Tous les jours dimanche, Dames Galantes, and some twenty films for other directors such as Georges Lautner (Triplex), Tony Gatlif, and Michel Wyn. In addition, Raymond Alessandrini also explored other musical horizons, notably silent film. He regularly composed and conducted new musical scores live to accompany silent film masterpieces, such as Erich von Stroheim’s Les Rapaces. At the same time, the Cinémathèque Française commissioned him to compose two musical scores for two exquisite silent films: René Clair’s Un chapeau de paille d’Italie and André Antoine’s L’Hirondelle et la Mésange, both of which were huge hits with audiences.

Continuing to compose, he has written contemporary music and scores for television, and has collaborated on musical storytelling projects such as Les Aventures de Poucette with Bruno Belthoise.  Alongside his artistic activities, he shared his knowledge as a piano teacher at the Conservatoire National de Région de Cergy-Pontoise, where he taught from 1980 to 2014.

Currently residing in Uzès, Raymond Alessandrini continues to perform, orchestrate, and compose—and, above all, to create arrangements of major works for two pianos, choirs, percussion, and vocal soloists, such as Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony (which received its world premiere at the Auvers-sur-Oise Festival in 1997), and the Requiems by Mozart, Dvořák, and Brahms…