Christophe BERTRAND was born on 1981. After obtaining first prizes in piano and chamber music at the Strasbourg National Conservatory (C.N.R.) (where he studied with Laurent CABASSO, Michèle RENOUL, Armand ANGSTER), he performs and records with Ensemble Accroche Note ou l’Ensemble In Extremis (which he co-founded). With them, he collaborated with composers such as Ivan FEDELE, Pascal DUSAPIN, Michael JARRELL, Mark ANDRE, Wolfgang RIHM, etc.

He began studying composition since 1996 with Ivan FEDELE at the C.N.R. de Strasbourg, and obtained in 2000 his composition diploma unanimously with honours. During that same year, the Musica Festival dedicated a concert to him, and he attended the Cursus annuel de composition et d’informatique musicale (2000-2001) at the IRCAM, where he worked among others with Philippe HUREL, Tristan MURAIL, Brian FERNEYHOUGH, et Jonathan HARVEY.

His compositions, conducted among others by Pierre BOULEZ, Jonathan NOTT, Hannu LINTU, Marc ALBRECHT, Pascal ROPHÉ, Guillaume BOURGOGNE, have been performed by prestigious ensembles and soloists :

Ensemble Intercontemporain, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio-France, Quatuor Arditti, Accroche Note, Ensemble Court-Circuit, Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, Ensemble Aleph, Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra, Ensemble Intégrales, Divertimento Ensemble, Ensemble Musicatreize, Quatuor Mandelring, Avanti!, entre autres ; Garth KNOX, Irvine ARDITTI, Hidéki NAGANO, Juliette HUREL, Jean-Marie COTTET, Jérôme COMTE, Claire-Marie LE GUAY, Marc COPPEY, Jan MICHIELS, Ilya GRINGOLTS, Sébastien VICHARD, Ferenc VIZI, etc.

His compositions have been performed :

– in France : Festival Musica, Ircam, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Festival Agora, Centre Georges Pompidou, Salle Olivier Messiaen de la Maison de Radio-France, Festival des Serres d’Auteuil, etc.
- in Germany : Beethovenfest Bonn, Kölner Philharmonie, Ultraschall-Festival in Berlin, Internationale Ferienkurse de Darmstadt, Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk, Opera of Hamburg
- in Switzerland : Lucerne Festival
- in Belgium : Ars Musica Festival in Brussels
- in Italy : Villa Medici, Festival Suona Francese, Festival Traiettorie in Parma, Rondo-Milano, Spoleto Festival, Pontino Festival
- in Holland : Gaudeamus Festival in Amsterdam
- but also USA (San Francisco), in United Kingdom (Manchester), etc. as well as various radios in France and abroad.

Among others, he has been commissionned by the Ensemble Intercontemporain, the Lucerne Festival, the Aix-en-Provence Festival, the Beethovenfest de Bonn, the Orchestre National d’Ile de France, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, the Musica Festival, Les Percussions de Strasbourg, the Auditorium du Louvre, the André Boucourechliev Fondation, Les Musicales de Colmar, the Radio Berlin-Brandeburg, the French State, Accroche Note, Ensemble Musicatreize, as well as from several private sponsors.

He obtained in 2001 the Music Prize from the Académie des Marches de l’Est, as well as a honorable mention at the Gaudeamus Festival and the Earplay Prize 2002.
In 2007, he won the SACEM Hervé DUGARDIN prize, and the André Prize CAPLET from the Académie des Beaux-Arts (Institut de France).

Christophe leaves us the 17th september 2010 at the young age of only 29 years.