Jean-Pierre Drouet, French percussionist and composer, was born in 1935.

Forced to give up the piano following an accident, he studied composition with René Leibowitz, Jean Barraqué and André Hodeir, embarking on a US tour with Luciano Berio and Cathy Berberian, frequenting jazz clubs and searching for music from various sources: he gave first performances of a number of contemporary pieces (by Berio, Stockhausen, Xenakis, etc.), studied non-European music (zarb, tablas) and improvised either solo or with friends.

Jean-Pierre Drouet has composed for the theatre (Jean-Marie Serreau, Claude Régy), for dance (Brigitte Lefèvre, Théâtre du Silence, Jean-Claude Gallotta) and for concert (Atem, Musica, 38e rugissants, Orchestre de Paris).

He was to discover stage works through his numerous collaborative projects with Mauricio Kagel and Georges Aperghis, which brought him into contact with Claudine Brahem’s musical machines and led to his compositions for Bartabas’ horsemen…