Jean-Luc Hervé was born in 1960. He studies orchestration and electro-acoustic music at the C.N.R. of Boulogne-Billancourt, and later under Emmanuel Nunes and Gérard Grisey at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique of Paris, where he wins the First Prize of Composition. He gains the prize from the "Comité de Lecture IRCAM/Eic in 1996 and in 1997 he receives the "Goffredo Petrassi" prize for his composition Ciels, for orchestra. He completes his studies on new technologies at the IRCAM, with a research on composition assisted by the computer, and he becomes associated as "compositeur en recherche" for the year 2001. He is guest composer at the Fondation des Treilles (1997), at Villa Kujoyama in Kyoto (2001), and he receives a fellowship from the DAAD in Berlin (2003)
Since 2001, he holds a teaching place in composition at the Conservatoire of Nanterre; he teaches at the Royaumont Abbey in September 2000 and 2005 and gives seminars, during the composition courses at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique of Paris (C.N.S.M.D.P.), at the IRCAM (1998-2000), at the Musical Institute "A. Peri" (Fondazione I Teatri) in Reggio Emilia (Italy), at the French Institute in Bilbao (Spain).
The meeting with Gérard Grisey is fundamental for the future direction of his activity; the doctorate thesis in aesthetics and the subsequent research at the IRCAM offer him a theoretical approach to his work as a composer, while the residence at Villa Kujoyama in Kyoto ends up being an aesthetical shock and a decisive turn in his activity.
He has received many commissions, from the French State, Radio France, IRCAM, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Ensemble "L'Itinéraire", Fondation Royaumont, Radio of Romande Switzerland, Berlin Konzerthaus, among others.