François Papirer began his musical studies at the conservatory in his hometown of Mulhouse (France) and continued them at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg (Germany) until 1996. He teaches percussion at various music conservatories and workshops (France, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, Canada, Uruguay, United States, Argentina, Austria, Italy, Sweden, etc.). He joined Les Percussions de Strasbourg in 1996 and has since performed all over the world. To date, he has participated in the creation of more than 120 works with the ensemble.
His personal musical projects create a link between his desire to travel and his need for music, between tradition and modernity. In 1998, he studied the tablas, percussion instruments from northern India, with Udai Mazumdar, a student of Ravi Shankar, and in 2004, he was awarded a grant from the Villa Medici Hors les Murs program, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, for a project combining oral and written music in India.
In 2016, he trained in maracas playing with Manuel Rangel, a Venezuelan maraquero. He then tested several microphony strategies in order to explore the instrument’s potential in detail. He then embarked on instrument making, building his own instrument prototypes to enrich his sound palette. Eager to increase the dynamic and spectral capabilities of this instrument, his research led him to create a wireless amplified maraca, giving the maraquero complete freedom of movement.