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 popular Italian singer
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. ==Film scores==