Trained as a pianist, Nicolas Mondon specialised in vocal accompaniment. As an improviser, he also perfected his skills in Alexandros Markéas's generative improvisation class at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris (CNSMDP) and took up the harpsichord. After obtaining a Master's degree in composition at the CNSMDP in the class of Gérard Pesson, he went on to write his doctoral thesis (SACRe) entitled Bronze battu en herbes (Bronze beaten into grass): the musical processes of Central Java as a model for musical composition at the Université Paris Sciences Lettres and the CNSMDP. Previously, he worked with Horatio Radulescu and Philippe Leroux, and took courses in computer music at IRCAM's Cursus I and II.
His works have been performed notably by the Ensemble Cairn, L'Instant donné, the Kammerensemble Neue Musik Berlin, Contrechamps, Fractales and Orchestre Pasdeloup, notably at the Salle Pleyel (Paris) and the Cologne Opera (Germany). He has received support from the Meyer and Tarazzi Foundations; residencies at Gargonza Arts (Italy/Köln) and Akademie Schloss Solitude (Stuttgart); several SACEM grants, prizes including the Prix d'Encouragement de l'Académie des Beaux-Arts and the Prix Chevillion-Bonnaud for his Sonate III pour piano très peu préparé; and several grants from the French government. He is interested in traditional (mainly Asian) music and jazz, and explores augmented instruments such as the prepared piano or, during a research residency at IRCAM, Adrien Mamou-Mani's Smartinstruments. Interested in the relationship between music and space, he has collaborated with visual artists and dancers such as Jean-François Leroy, Susanna Fritscher, Desire Davids and Kadek Puspasari.
Nicolas Mondon was also assistant to Michaël Lévinas (analysis) at the CNSMDP and is currently professor of instrumental and electronic composition at the Vitry-sur-Seine and Bagnolet Conservatoires; he is also founder and artistic director of the InSoliTus ensemble.
