François FAYT was born on 18 February 1946 in Argences, Normandy, studied music at the Versailles Conservatoire, and then graduated from the Higher School of Music in Paris. He took Master Classes under Marcel Ciampi and Aldo Ciccolin, and was a pupil of Eugène Kurtz, Professor of Music at the University of Michigan and New York, for composition. Initially a concert performer, it was not long before François Fayt devoted all his time to composing. After meeting Marcel Maréchal, who was Director of the Marseilles National Theatre, La Criée, Fayt was given the opportunity of composing a fair amount of incidental music for plays. He also composed an opera, l'Arbre de Mai, of which the first performance took place in 1993, directed by Pierre Constant with décors by Roberto Platé.  Fayt also composes Symphony music, Chamber music (his quite remarkable Ellison's Quartet was played for the first time on June 24th 2004 at the Horrues Summer Festival in Belgium by the Brussels String Quartet), and instrumental music (Jean-Marc Luisada and Svetlin Roussev, the French National Theatre solo violinist, commissioned a String quintet with piano and Epilogue, a violin and piano sonata. In the religious music repertory, François Fayt has composed a Requiem and Stabat Mater (première on August 24^th 2007 at the Fabrezan Son MiRé Festival.)