Lucian Meţianu

Currently living in Switzerland, the valuable composer, researcher and professor Lucian Meţianu was born on June 3rd 1937, in Cluj. He attended the National University of Music in Bucharest, studying with Anatol Vieru, Aurel Stroe and Tiberiu Olah. He also graduated the Faculty of Electronics within the Polytechnic Institute of Bucharest. Between 1969-71 he specialized in electronic music in Köln with Herbert Eimert at Hochschule für Musik where he graduated with a paper titled Pythagoreis. He has been deeply interested in the theory of music, the mathematical aspect of music, being the author of works such as Quartets No.4 and No.5, Brevis Symphony or Dialogue for flute, piano and percussion. At the University in Bucharest, Meţianu befriended Octavian Nemescu and Corneliu Cezar, sharing the same preoccupations as him: electronic music and innovative composition techniques, “strange” for those times.

Lucian Meţianu is a member of the Union of Romanian Composers and Musicologists, SUISA, the transdisciplinary group Ganesha (Lausanne University), Réseau Audition (Swiss Universities), Committee of the Lausanne Society of Contemporary Music, Swiss Society of Musical Pedagogy, the Foundation Council of the Ribaupierre Institute. He is the founder of the Archebole Composers’ Association. He moved to Switzerland in 1984 where he taught composition at the Lausanne Robaupierre Institute (1985-2011) and electronic music at the Lausanne Conservatory (1990-98), where he created the electronic music lab. In 2007 he was awarded the Order of Cultural Merit as an Officer for his entire cultural activity.

Lucian Meţianu composed chamber and symphonic music, as well as film music. Some of his chamber music works are Evocation (1973), Evolutio (1973), Evolutio (1974) and Eulogy (distinguished with the Union of Romanian Composers and Musicologists Award). He wrote articles such as Une ordonnance de la structure musicale (Muzica No.2/1981, Bucharest), Le geste – Espace, temps, Énergie, densitÉ (Revue Musicale de Suisse Romande, No.3/1987) and he appeared in various musical and film dictionaries, such as International Who’s Who in Music and Musicians Directory (10th edition), Grove Dictionary (London, 2011),  Filmlexikon or Die Neue MGG – Stichwortliste des Sachteils.