Born in 1937, French conductor and composer Jean-Louis Petit studied classics and entered the seminary before finally deciding to dedicate himself to music. After an initial period at Rheims Conservatoire, he further pursued his composition studies at the Paris Conservatoire under Simone Plé and Olivier Messiaen, and studied conducting with Igor Markevitch, Franco Ferrara and Pierre Boulez.

As a conductor, he founded the Orchestra Jean-Louis Petit in 1958 and established the Workshop Music Vi...