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Gérard Pape was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1955. He graduated with a B.A. in Psychology from Columbia University in 1976, while simultaneously beginning private composition lessons with David Winkler. Pape studied electronic music with George Wilson in the analog and digital studios of the University of Michigan.
Pape has composed more than 50 works for orchestra, chamber music, and electronic works for instruments, voice and/or tape.
Among his most important compositions is the work Feu Toujours Vivant for large orchestra and 4 sampler keyboards, commissioned by the electronic ensemble Art Zoyd and the National Orchestra of Lille, conducted by Jean-Claude Casadesus.
Pape has written numerous psychoanalytic articles. A book of his literary works, including short stories, plays and poetry, was published in the USA in 1984. More recently, he has published articles on musical complexity, and on the music of Luigi Nono (published in Contemporary Music Review). He has written and lectured extensively on the subject of Composing in the Continuum and is currently editing a book on this subject called Le Continuum due out fall 2002 in Paris. He has recently published an article Iannis Xenakis and the Real of Musical Composition in the Computer Music Journal.
His discography consists of a monographic disc released in 1992 by Mode, including works played by the Arditti Quartet, the Prism Orchestra of New York, and William Albright. In September 1998, Mode released a second disc of Pape's work, performed by Arditti Quartet, Ensemble 2E2M, Ensemble Voxnova, saxophonist Daniel Kientzy, singer Nicholas Isherwood, Janet Pape, and flutist Cécile Daroux. Mode recently released a double cd anthology called CCMIX Paris: Xenakis/UPIC/Continuum that contains Pape's Le Fleuve du Desir III for string quartet and tape, as played by the Arditti Quartet.
Pape is working on an operatic project based on Antonin Artaud's play The Cenci and which involves a collaboration with the actor-director Michel de Maulne and his theater, Maison de la Poésie, located in Paris. His most recent work The Ecstasy of St. Theresa for 9 singers and live electronics commissioned by the Donaueschingen Festival will be premiered in October 2002.
Pape has directed Les Ateliers UPIC, recently renamed CCMIX (Center for the Composition of Music Iannis Xenakis) since 1991. This organisation is a computer music center located in Paris and was under the honorary presidency of Iannis Xenakis. Besides being a composer and director, he is a practicing Lacanian psychoanalyst.