Michel Tabachnik (born 10 November 1942) is a Swiss conductor and composer with an international career. A promoter of contemporary music, he has premiered a dozen works by Iannis Xenakis, among others. He is also the author of essays on music and novels.
Tabachnik has an interest in esotericism and spirituality, and beginning in the 1970s he was a member of the Golden Way Foundation and its successor group the Order of the Solar Temple (OTS), run by Joseph Di Mambro. In 1994, the Solar Temple committed mass suicide, and following another mass suicide the next year, Tabachnik was investigated and tried twice for responsibility in the OTS deaths. Tabachnik was acquitted on all counts in both trials, and returned to conducting.
In June 1977, having an interest in esotericism, Tabachnik met Joseph Di Mambro, one of the two future leaders of the Order of the Solar Temple, a group notorious for mass suicides and murders in the 1990s.[4] He had been introduced with his wife Christiane Meylan to La Pyramide, a precursor group, by Nicole Koymans; he joined the next year.[5] He had two children with Meylan.[6] In 1981, he became the president of the Golden Way Foundation that Di Mambro created.[4]
Within the framework of the OTS, Tabachnik wrote the Archées, esoteric texts that circulated within the OTS.[7][8] In 1981, he switched wives with Christian Pechot, also a member of the OTS, with Pechot marrying to Meylan and Tabachnik marrying Pechot's wife Sabine Reuter, who was a student of Di Mambro.[4][9] He and Sabine moved to Toronto in 1984, as he found conductor work there, which Di Mambro used as a reason to move the group to Canada.[10] Within the group, his son David was considered one of the "cosmic children", who would form an elite population following the end of the world.[11]
The Solar Temple committed mass suicide and murder in 1994, killing 53 people.[13] Among the dead were Meylan and Pechot, and Pechot and Meylan's son.[4][6] Prior to the mass suicide Tabachnik had announced the end of the OTS.[14] He largely escaped negative attention following the first deaths, but following the second mass suicide in December 1995, his name made headline news. His stated defense at the time was that he had little to do with the OTS, which backfired when more evidence came out and this was found to be untrue.[15]
Despite a lack of evidence implicating him in any crime, there was a need by the French justice system to put someone on trial and Tabachnik was investigated.[16][15] This resulted in two trials in 2001 and 2006. On 25 June 2001, the court acquitted Tabachnik, on the basis that there had been no conclusive proof found of any involvement, and his writings accused of influencing the members into death were deemed unlikely to have influenced them.[17] The appeals court upheld the lower court's ruling, and he was acquitted a second time in December 2006.[17]
Later career
As a result of the investigation related to the OTS, Tabachnik had lost most of his work as a conductor and had to pause his career.[17] Following his acquittal, Tabachnik returned to being a conductor.[18]
Since September 2005, Tabachnik is chief-conductor of the Noord Nederlands Orkest (NNO).[19] From 2008 until 2015, Tabachnik was the music director and chief-conductor of the Brussels Philharmonic.[20][21][22][23]
Speaking on his involvement with the OTS, Tabachnik appeared in two 2022 documentary series on the case, Temple Solaire: l'enquête impossible and La Fraternité.[24][25]Temple Solaire: l'enquête impossible also featured journalists Gilles Bouleau and Arnaud Bédat, both who had accused of him of being involved in the deaths.[26][27] During an interview for the promotion of the series, Bédat stated he had changed his mind and no longer believed that Tabachnik had planned the deaths, and that him being away in concert had perhaps stopped him from being killed as well.[28]
Publications
Bouc émissaire: Dans le piège du Temple Solaire
Il était une fois un enfant, novel, publisher de l'Aire, 1999.
De la Musique avant toute chose, essay, préface by Régis Debray, Essai, éd. Buchet/Chastel, 2008.
L’Homme sauvage, novel, publisher Ring, 2013.
Ma Rhapsodie, essay, publisher Buchet/Chastel, 2016.
Le Libraire de Saint-Sulpice, novel, publisher Otago 2017.
L’Enlèvement au Sinaï, novel, publisher Otago, 2019.
Demain au Marmara Taskim, novel, publisher L'Harmattan, 2022.
La Pierre de Siloé, novel, publisher L'Harmattan, 2022.
Compositions
Supernovae, 1967
Frise, 1968
Fresque, 1969
Invention à 16 voix, 1972
Mondes, 1972
Sillages, 1972
D'autres Sillages, 1972
Movimenti, 1973
Éclipses, 1974
Argile, 1974
Trois Impressions, 1975
Les Perséïdes, 1981
Cosmogonie, 1981
l'Arch, 1982
7 Rituels Atlantes, 1984
Pacte des onze (Évangile selon Thomas), 1985
Élévation, 1990
Prélude à la Légende, 1989
Le Cri de Mohim, 1991
Évocation, 1994
La Légende de Haïsha, 1989
Concerto pour piano et orchestre de chambre, 2003
Nord pour orchestre, 2006
Diptyque-écho, Concerto pour violon et orchestre, 2008
Genèse, pour violon solo et orchestre, 2010
Lumières fossiles, pour orchestre, 2011
Benjamin, dernière nuit, opéra, 2012
Le livre de Job, 2013
Benjamin, dernière nuit, drame lyrique en quatorze scènes, 2016
"Sumer", concerto pour violoncelle et orchestre, 2019
"Genèse II", concerto pour violon et orchestre, 2021
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