CHAMASS-KYROU, Mireille

Mireille Chamass-Kyrou (1931–2017) was a French composer associated with musique concrète and the early development of electroacoustic music. She was born in Cairo in September 1931 to a French mother and a Palestinian father. She studied piano in Cairo with Brigitte Schiffer and moved to Paris in 1955, where she studied harmony with Olivier Messiaen.
In 1958, Chamass-Kyrou joined Pierre Schaeffer’s Groupe de Recherches Musicales (GRM), working alongside composers involved in experimental and electroacoustic music. She also contributed to research on systems of notation for musique concrète. She remained at the GRM until 1961.
Her best-known work is Étude 1 (1960), constructed from unconventional sound sources including a comb and a feather. The piece was later included on the Philips anthology Musique Concrète and appears in the INA/GRM archival collection L’art de l’étude. She also composed music for Adonis Kyrou’s short film La Chevelure (1960), and other experimental works attributed to her include Film Musique and Koro Wild. Apple Music Classical - Web Player
Chamass-Kyrou occupies an important place among the women active in the formative period of French electroacoustic and experimental music, particularly through her work at GRM during the late 1950s and early 1960s.