Jean Michel Andr� Jarre is a French composer, performer and music producer. He is a pioneer in the electronic, ambient and new-age genres, and known as an organiser of outdoor spectacles of his music featuring lights, laser displays, and fireworks. Jarre was raised in Lyon by his mother and grandparents, and trained on the piano. From an early age he was introduced to a variety of art forms, including those of street performers, jazz musicians, and the artist Pierre Soulages. He played guitar in a band, but his musical style was perhaps most heavily influenced by Pierre Schaeffer, a pioneer of musique concr�te at the Groupe de Recherches Musicales. His first mainstream success was the 1976 album Oxyg�ne. Recorded in a makeshift studio at his home, the album sold an estimated 12 million copies. Oxyg�ne was followed in 1978 by �quinoxe, and in 1979 Jarre performed to a record-breaking audience of more than a million people at the Place de la Concorde, a record he has since broken three times. More albums were to follow, but his 1979 concert served as a blueprint for his future performances around the world. 

August 24th, 1948 in Lyon (Age 76)