Born in 1990, Charly Mandon was admitted at the age of 16, unanimously, to the CNSMDP in the harmony class of Jean-François Zygel. He went on to study in the Fugue and Forms classes of Thierry Escaich, the advanced analysis class of Michaël Levinas and the orchestration class of Guillaume Connesson, then trained in conducting at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, where he obtained his Master's in June 2018 after conducting the Royal Liège Philharmonic Orchestra.
The piano
Charly devoted his earliest years as a composer to writing for solo piano. His meeting in 2010 with Stephen Paulello, maker of revolutionary pianos with keyboards extended to 102 notes, opened a field of exploration where pieces such as the Caprice (premiered in 2014 by Lucas Debargue, video viewed more than 350,000 times on YouTube), the Toccata (premiered in 2016 by Philippe Hattat at the Philharmonie de Paris), the Prélude (premiered in 2017 by Guillaume Vincent), the Klavierstück (premiered in 2018 by Jérôme Ducros) and the Wutstück (premiered in 2023 by Lucas Debargue) came to life.
Salle Cortot
Noticed by Jérôme Pernoo, who opened the doors of the Paris Chamber Music Centre (Salle Cortot) at its creation in 2015, Charly gradually turned to chamber music. Over the years, fifteen "Freshly composed" mini-concerts have been dedicated to his work; his Mouvement perpétuel, first recorded in 2014 for the Adami Classical Discoveries DVD, was integrated into the "Le Bal masqué" concert-show and reprised 11 times on the Centre's stage.
The major "Freshly Composed Evenings" saw the premiere of his Sonatine for violin and piano in 2017, then his Trio for violin, cello and piano during the 2021 edition of which he is the patron.
Festivals & chamber
Charly is regularly programmed in various chamber music festivals in France and Belgium: Musique en Côte de Nacre, Semaines musicales de Quimper, Musicorum à Bruxelles, Prades, and Les vacances de M. Haydn in La Roche-Posay where he was composer-in-residence in 2018.
In 2022, his Trio was performed at the closing concert of the 30th Festival des Forêts by Lucas Debargue (piano) and the brothers David and Alexandre Castrobalbi (violin and cello). His Waldtrio was premiered by the same musicians in 2025, this time for the opening gala of the 33rd Festival des Forêts. After his Berceuse No. 1 for cello and piano, premiered in 2018 by Jérôme Pernoo and Nicholas Angelich, a second Berceuse was premiered by Aurélien Pascal and Alexandre Kantorow in 2025.
Prometheus Dance performed by the Nice Philharmonic Orchestra under Lionel Bringuier in autumn 2025.Premiere · Nice Philharmonic Orchestra
The symphonic repertoire
For some years, Charly has devoted himself essentially to the symphonic repertoire. In 2021 he wrote a Concertino for piano and orchestra, premiered by Jérôme Granjon and the Orchestre Colonne conducted by Ilan Sousa. 2022 saw the premiere of Le Marteau avec maître, again by the Orchestre Colonne, with Marc Korovitch conducting.
That same year, Mehdi Lougraïda premiered the orchestral version of his Mouvement perpétuel in Caracas, conducting the Simon Bolivar Orchestra. In 2023 his Actes rituels for string quartet and orchestra (a 35-minute symphonic poem) was premiered by the Quatuor Girard, the Orchestre national Avignon-Provence with Débora Waldman conducting, in two concerts at the Collège des Bernardins in Paris and the Palais des Papes in Avignon, marking the centenary of the philosopher René Girard.
In 2025, his Prometheus Dance was conducted by Lionel Bringuier at four concerts of the Nice Philharmonic Orchestra, opening its symphonic season.
Charly Mandon was awarded the Crédit Agricole "Freshly composed" Prize for his Sonatine; he has also been a laureate of the Safran Foundation since December 2019.
