Biography
Gabriel Yared (Arabic: غبريال يارد; born 7 October 1949) is a Lebanese-French composer, best known for his work in French and American cinema. He also served as the composer of the 1999 Warner Bros. Pictures fanfare, which originally debuted a year earlier during a montage to celebrate the studio's 75th anniversary.
Born in Beirut, Lebanon, Yared scored the French films Betty Blue and Camille Claudel. He later worked on English-language films, particularly those directed by Anthony Minghella. He won an Academy Award for Best Original Score and a Grammy Award for his work on The English Patient (1996) and was nominated for both The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) and Cold Mountain (2003).
When Yared was 7, his father sent him to an accordion teacher. Two years later Yared stopped his accordion lessons and started music theory and piano lessons. Although he was not necessarily a gifted pianist, Yared was interested in reading music. When Yared was 14, his piano teacher died and… Yared replaced him as the organist of Université Saint-Joseph. Yared used the university's library to read the works of Johann Sebastian Bach, Robert Schumann, and many other composers. This extensive reading inspired his first original composition, a piano waltz.
Yared gained a degree in law and did not formally study music at the university level until he traveled to France in 1969 to attend the École Normale de Musique de Paris as a non-registered student. There he learned music composition from Henri Dutilleux.
At the end of 1971, Yared went to Brazil to visit his uncle and was asked by the president of the World Federation of Light Music Festivals to write a song to represent the Lebanese in the Rio de Janeiro Song Festival. The song he composed went on to win first prize. While in Brazil, he also performed with a small orchestra. Yared subsequently said that his time in Brazil greatly influenced his work.
In 1975, he arranged the album Minacantalucio for the most popular Italian singer of all time, Mina.
He then went back to France, where he met and collaborated with the Costa Brothers, Jacques Dutronc, Françoise Hardy, Charles Aznavour, Mireille Mathieu, and numerous other musicians. This was a prolific period for the composer and he wrote nearly 3,000 pieces over a span of about six years. His contributions included a number of radio and TV jingles, such as TF1 news jingles and an episode on the series In the Tracks of.
Among the collaborations with Françoise Hardy, Yared produced and arranged her 1977 album Star, composing two songs of the album, Chanson sur toi et nous and Fatiguée.
Yared composed and produced Yara Lapidus' 2018 album Indéfiniment, and the final track Encor Encor (bonus track version featuring Iggy Pop) is a song based on Betty Blue soundtrack, C'est le vent, Betty.
Albums as a singer: Quand Le Monde (1972) - Quand Le Monde and Ouabadabada, Oui! || Toc Toc Toqué (1979) - Gabriel Yared: Composer, Arranger, Singer, Producer. Michel Jonasz: Lyricist. - Papa Schumann - video: INA, Institut national de l'audiovisuel - “Numéro un” Season 6 - Episode 5 (16 February 1980) Gabriel Yared “Papa Schumann” - YouTube | ina.fr
In 2012, he became Honorary President of Les Amis de Maurice Ravel. (Gabriel Yared, Président d’honneur des Amis de Maurice Ravel)
Yared was a member of the Jury at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival.
2Discography
| Artist | Title | Year | Format | Classification | Gem, favourite, must-listen | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Gabriel Yared | 37°2 Le Matin | © & ℗1986 | Vinyl LP, Album | Film / Television / Advertising | |
 | Gabriel Yared | Betty Blue (37°2 Le Matin) | ©1986 ℗1992 | CD Album, Reissue | Film / Television / Advertising |