As well as being a composer, conductor and cellist, Jean-Paul Dessy also has a Master’s Degree in Philosophy and Literature. He has conducted more than a hundred and twenty worldwide contemporary music creations and has recorded more than fifty CDs of classic contemporary pieces, receiving numerous awards (Choc from Monde de la Musique and Classica, Five Stars from the BBC Magazine, etc.).
Over the years, he composed symphonies, chamber music, electronic music and an opera, Kilda, l’île des hommes-oiseaux, which he conducted at the opening of the Edinburgh Festival in 2009. His work L’Ombre du son was awarded the Paul Gilson Prize by French Language Public Radio Stations. He also composed a large body of incidental music for directors including Jacques Lasalle, Denis Marleau, Anne-Laure Liégeois, David Géry, Lorent Wanson, Frédéric Dussenne and others, for choreographers including Frédéric Flamand, Nicole Mossoux and others, for films and catwalk shows by the fashion designer Hussein Chalayan and even for the Levers de soleil by Bartabas.
Le Chant du Monde/Harmonia Mundi has released two CDs devoted to his works: The Present’s presents and Prophètes, for solo cello, on which he also plays. His musical quest lies firmly in the domain of the sacred, viewing concerts as a liturgy, playing an instrument as a way of meditating, composition as a type of prophecy and sound as a revelation.