An eclectic musician with a compelling melodic gift, Laurent Petitgirard combines a career as a composer of orchestral and film music with that of an international conductor. This collection includes two of his most recent works, the exotically scored The Twelve Guards of the Temple, which uses five ancient Tibetan cymbals, and the radiant Poem for Large String Orchestra. The 1989 ballet Euphonia describes a futuristic musical city 'Euphonia' in which a jealous composer sets a musical trap to destroy the woman who spurned him. Petitgirard's first opera, Joseph Merrick dit Elephant Man can be heard on CD (Naxos 8.557608-09) and on DVD (Marco Polo 2.220001).