Born in Bordeaux, Capdenat attended special courses in mathematics in addition to his schooling, took piano lessons and conducted a youth choir.
In 1971, he was awarded the Hervé Dugardin Prize of the Société des auteurs, compositeurs et éditeurs de musique (SACEM), and he decided to concentrate on music in 1978.
He composed on commissions from Radio France, the French Ministry of Culture, the Orchestre nationale de Lille and Bordeaux, and the Grand Théâtre in Tours.
[3] Directed by Olivier Desbordes [fr], the Opéra Éclaté performed it at the Les Excentrés festival in Gap and on a national tour.
[4] Capdenat expressed his goal as "music open to the acquisitions of contemporary language yet retaining the desire to be clear and lyrical and avoiding both demagogy and neo-romanticism".