Benoît Menut is passionate about the infinite world of instrumental and orchestral colors as well as the close link between music and words, the latter serve as a constant source of inspiration for him.
For the stage, he wrote Fando et Lis (2018), based on Fernando Arrabal, and won the Nouveau Talent prize from the SACD in 2019 and the Charles Oulmont Prize in 2019 for this first opera, thus continuing an increasingly marked trajectory: Micromégas, an opera based on Voltaire, commissioned by the Ars Musica festival in Brussels (2023), the adaptation and orchestration of Pierre Lacotte's ballet Le Rouge et le Noir for the Opéra de Paris (2021), Beethoven Celtique, a symphonic project with Sir Bryn Terfel and Carlos Nunes (2023), and the opera Stella et le Maître des souhaits(commissioned by the Philharmonie de Paris in 2020). Always open to new adventures, he is preparing for 2025 Un Match, a new opera set in the world of football (Paris, Opéra de Reims...), Circe / her story, Philharmonie de Paris (2026), as well as a choral and orchestral work in tribute to Beethoven, commissioned for the Présences festival in 2027.
This attraction is also materialized through collaborations with renowned ensembles such as Musicatreize, the choirs of Radio France or Notre-Dame de Paris, Les Cris de Paris, Les Discours (for Le Christ aux Coquelicotsbased on Christian Bobin), and the National Youth Choir.
His already extensive catalog (over 170 works) encompasses nearly all forms of instrumental or vocal musical expression, making him one of the most prominent French composers of his generation. While chamber music holds a special place in his work, this former student of the Conservatoire de Paris continues his unique path towards the orchestra, with international collaborations (Japan, Belgium, Ukraine) for concertos and symphonic pieces often marked by connections to other arts: photography, dance, painting, video... He always strives to marry the demands of lyrical and structured writing with a fierce desire to remain close to the audience and performers, acting as a sort of "director" of emotions, as a vector, a medium.
His first three monographic albums, Monologue[s] (recorded by the Ensemble Accroche Note), Les Îles (with Emmanuelle Bertrand, Maya Villanueva, and the Ensemble Syntonia, released by Harmonia Mundi), and Chants de l’Isolé (Trio Karénine – Diapason d’OR 2023) have been well received by critics.
He receives commissions and collaborates with artists such as Bryn Terfel, David Kadouch, the Trio Karenine, the Quatuor Tana, the ensembles Ars Nova, Musique Nouvelle, Calliopée, Les Surprises (Radio France), and the national orchestras of Paris, the Opéra de Paris, Île de France, Pays de Loire, Brittany, Metz, Nancy, as well as orchestras in Washington, Kyiv, Kanazawa, and the Royal Chamber Orchestra of Wallonia...
Nominated twice for the Victoires de la Musique Classique, Benoît Menut is a laureate of the Florent Schmitt Prize from the Institut de France (2022), the Grand Prix SACEM 2016 for symphonic music (young composer category), the teachers' prize at the Grand Prix des Lycéens 2020, and a laureate of the Banque Populaire foundations (2008) and Francis and Mica Salabert (2014).
Published by Éditions Musicales Artchipel, Benoît is a knight in the Order of Arts and Letters.