Olivier Greif was born in Paris on 3 January 1950 to a family that hailed from the Polish crownland of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. His father, a neuropsychiatrist and an excellent pianist, was an Auschwitz survivor, and this theme inflected a significant portion of the composer’s work both consciously and unconsciously. The remarkably precocious Greif was a student of Lucette Descaves and Yvonne Desportes before enrolling in the Conservatoire de Paris, where he studied specialized music theory with Marcel Bitsch, piano with Lucette Descaves and Louise Clavius-Marius, sight-reading with Geneviève Joy-Dutilleux, chamber music with Jean Hubeau, and composition with Tony Aubin. Greif was admitted to Aubin’s class in 1965 after an entry exam for which he was required to obtain a special dispensation for his young age, and without following the usual prerequisite studies in harmony, counterpoint, and fugue. He graduated with highest honors in composition at the age of seventeen with his Sonate n° 2 for violin and piano.

Greif was drawn to the lively cosmopolitanism of the United States, and traveled there in 1969 to study with Luciano Berio at New York’s Juilliard School, where he remained for fifteen months. He worked as Berio’s assistant for the premiere of Opera in Santa Fe. Through the artist Ultra Violet, Greif met Andy Warhol and Salvador Dalí, who took a liking to the young composer. Back in France, Grief returned to the Conservatoire de Paris, where he studied orchestral conducting with Robert Blot and orchestration with Marius Constant. The 1970s marked a first phase of creative maturity, in parallel with an intense career as a concert performer. In 1977, with the support of Olivier Messiaen, Greif was awarded the Prix Nicolo for music composition by the Académie des Beaux-Arts. Notable compositions from this era include Sonate dans le goût ancien, the Wiener Konzert for soprano and piano, Le Tombeau de Ravel for piano four-hands, Bomben auf Engelland for soprano, saxophone, and piano, the Petite Cantate de chambre for female vocalist and two pianos, Sonata n° 3 “The Meeting of the Waters” for violin and piano, and the first versions of two major works: Sonate de Requiem for cello and piano and Les Chants de l’âme, a cycle of nine songs in English.

Greif’s career as both a performer and a composer slowed considerably after the spiritual quest he began in 1974. In addition to the lasting connection he developed with Dom Jean Claire, the choir conductor at the Abbey of Solesmes, Greif’s encounter with the meditation teacher and spiritual leader Sri Chinmoy accelerated his retreat from public life. After his mother’s death in 1978, the composer devoted himself fully to Sri Chinmoy’s teachings, adopting the Bengali name Haridas, which means “slave of God.” When his chamber opera Nô, co-produced by the Opéra de Paris, IRCAM, and the Festival d’Automne in 1981, failed to achieve success, Greif withdrew entirely from the musical world. For more than ten years, he devoted himself entirely to conducting Sri Chinmoy’s choir, Song-Waves. He toured the world with the choir, which sang mostly melodies by Sri Chinmoy arranged by Greif (more than a hundred opus numbers which he would later repudiate). During this time, he remained a highly sought-after chamber performer, and directed the Académie-Festival des Arcs, which he had been attending since its founding, for three years running.

Greif returned to composing in 1993 with new versions of Sonate de Requiem, Trois Pièces sérieuses, Sonata “Le Rêve du monde” for piano, the Lettres de Westerbork for female vocalist and two violins (Radio France), and the premiere of Chants de l’âme (Salle Gaveau). Despite two bouts of illness, his career relaunched: Quintet with piano “A Tale of the World” (Kuhmo Festival, Finland), Hymnes spéculatifs for vocalist and ensemble (Musique nouvelle en liberté), Sonata for two cellos “The Battle of Agincourt” (Freiburg), and the Sonata “Les Plaisirs de Chérence” for piano. Greif was artist in residence at the Abbaye de La Prée (1997-1999), and received the Prix Chartier in music composition from the Académie des Beaux-Arts. At this time he broke with his spiritual teacher and took back his birth name.

In 1998 alone, he completed Symphony n° 1 for baritone and orchestra, his String Quartet n° 2 with vocalist, Le Livre des saints irlandais for baritone and piano, L’Office des naufragés for vocalist, clarinet, string quartet, and piano, his Quadruple Concerto “La Danse des morts” for piano, violin, viola, cello, and orchestra, his Trio with piano, and “Todesfuge“: String quartet n° 3 with vocalist. The following year he completed Trois Chansons apocryphes, Portraits et Apparitions for piano, Concerto for cello “Durch Adams Fall“, and Requiem for double a cappella choir. Shortly after the premiere of his sextet Ich ruf zu dir and his String quartet n° 4 “Ulysses“, in the full force of his creativity, Olivier Greif died unexpectedly in Paris on 13 May 2000.