6 Etudes for Saxophone by Jean-Michel Defaye

Jean-Michel Defaye was born in Saint-Mande, just outside Paris, on 18 September 1932. Ten years later he entered the Paris Conservatoire and completed his entire musical training there, from theory and piano right through composition, taking in also Nadia Boulanger’s accompanying class. In 1952 he won the premier Second Grand Prix de Rome, and a year later the second prize in composition for the Belgian Queen Elisabeth competition.

His work in mainly oriented towards instrumental music, particularly for brass. Among his compositions are the Hallucinations for large orchestra, several concertos for trumpet, trombone, saxophone and orchestra, brass quartets and octets, the Etudes stereo for 12 horns, and teaching series for flute, clarinet, saxophone, trumpet, trombone, and tube.