Alain Bernaud

Bernaud was born in Neuilly-sur-Seine of a polytechnician father, a good violinist and violist and a mother playing the piano, daughter of Marcel Chadeigne[1] who was, before and after the First World War, choir conductor at the Paris Opera and pianist - accompanist - decipherer - reducer of orchestral scores.

He had formed with Maurice Ravel, Maurice Delage, Déodat de Séverac, Florent Schmitt, Paul Ladmirault, Émile Vuillermoz, Désiré Inghelbrecht, Ricardo Viñes and Tristan Klingsor, a group they had named Les Apaches, and whose rallying call was whistling the first theme of Borodin's Second Symphony.

Arriving in Paris in 1938, he began studying piano and music theory with Marie-Louise Gigout-Boëllmann [fr], wrote his Opus 1, a string quartet (for the family!)

and then returned to the Conservatoire de Paris (direction of Claude Delvincourt) in specialized solfege class, at Lucette Descaves, where he met Michel Legrand, Roger Boutry, Jean-Michel Defaye and Alain Weber.

He then followed Jules Gentil's piano class (1st medal) - studied harmony with Jacques de La Presle (1st prize) - counterpoint and fugue with Noël Gallon (1st medal and 1st prize) - finally musical composition with Tony Aubin (1st Prix de Rome in 1953 with Ouverture à la française for 2 pianos).