Pierre-Marie Chemla studied music in Lyon, then in Paris. A career as a bassoonist has allowed him to play all the repertoires of Western music, for prestigious French and European orchestras (Opéra Royal de Bruxelles, Orchestre de Paris, Opéra de Lyon).
He actively participates in the restoration of early music on period instruments and performs in European baroque music ensembles, with whom he has recorded an abundant discography (ensemble Elyma, la Grande écurie et la chambre du roi, Ensemble baroque de Nice, Orchestre baroque de Montauban…).
At the age of 29, he began to study Persian and Indian music, and received the musical shock that was to determine the rest of his career. He studied singing with masters of learned music (mainly with Dariush Talaï). In 1989, thanks to the support of the Châteaux de la Drôme, he organised an “Orient-Occident” meeting, bringing together musicians from North India, Iran and the West (Gregorian chant).
He is also the author of lectures: Introduction to the music of North India; From Gregorian semiology to musical anthropology; Gregorian chant as a contemporary treasure; The Apt Manuscript in the medieval universe; Improvisation in medieval repertoires, given successively at the Nice conservatory, at the congress of music teachers at the Marseille conservatory, at the FNAC forum in Marseille, as part of Music at the time of the Popes (Avignon – October 2002) and at the GRIM in Marseille (June 2006).
In 2009, he was invited in residence to Firminy for a creation in the Le Corbusier church bringing together dance and voice – Kilina Cremona and Pierre-Marie Chemla, in a show called Khataros. He is a member of the Organum ensemble, founder of the “Orients Musicaux” and of the Jubal ensemble of which he is the artistic director.
Pierre-Marie Chemla has been working for thirty years on medieval repertoires, which he interprets in the light of the traditional music with which he has become familiar.
From 2004 to 2020, he taught bassoon and Gregorian chant at the Conservatoire national de région in Marseille.
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