Jean-Luc Darbellay

Jean-Luc Darbellay (born 2 July 1946, Bern) is a Swiss composer, conductor, clarinetist and physician. He was chairman of the Swiss Society for New Music and board member of the International Society for Contemporary Music. Darbellay is a member of the composers group: Groupe Lacroix. He has published about 150 works. He was awarded with the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

Like his father and brother Darbellay first studied medicine at the University of Bern.

In 1975 he studied the clarinet with Kurt Weber at the Bern Conservatory and musical composition with Theo Hirsbrunner, Cristobal Halffter and Dimitri Terzakis. He attended seminars with Pierre Boulez (IRCM and Collège de France) and Franco Ferrara and masterclasses with Heinz Holliger and Klaus Huber. He was assistant of Edison Denisov at the Lucerne Festival. At a festival in Perugia he met John Cage, who visited Europe the last time before his death in 1992. He studied conducting with Pierre Dervaux, Paul Theissen and Jean-Marie Auberson as well.