Éric Tanguy is among the most often performed French contemporary composers, offering a lyrical style and vivid instrumental writing. In 2004, and again in 2008, he was named Composer of the Year at France's Victoires de la Musique Classique awards.

Tanguy was born on January 27, 1968, in Caen in northwestern France. He took private composition lessons from Horatiu Radulescu beginning in 1985 and then enrolled at the Conservatoire de Paris, studying there with Ivo Malec and Gérard Grisey. Even before entering the Conservatoire, his works were being performed; his Vitrail for solo violin was premiered at the Darmstadt Festival in Germany. He earned a first prize for composition upon graduating in 1991. Tanguy was awarded a residency at the Académie de France in Rome in 1993 and 1994 and also studied with Henri Dutilleux at the Tanglewood Music Center in Massachusetts. Several residencies with orchestras in Lille in 1995, at the Chamber Music Festival in Prussia Cove, U.K. in 1999, with the Orchestre de Bretagne from 2001 to 2003, and at the Festival des Arcs in 2011, among others, helped Tanguy build up a catalog of works that by the early 2020s numbered more than 100.

Tanguy's works have been performed by many of the world's leading orchestras, including the Boston Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Helsinki Philharmonic, in addition to numerous top French groups, under such conductors as Paavo Järvi, Seiji Ozawa, and Esa-Pekka Salonen. The long list of prestigious soloists who have performed Tanguy's music is headed by cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, who commissioned the Cello Concerto No. 2 in 1999 and premiered it in 2001; the list also includes such players as pianist Nicholas Angelich, cellist-violinist siblings Gautier and Renaud Capuçon, and the Diotima Quartet. A recording of Tanguy's solo flute work Wadl was included on a 2002 album of French flute works by Juliette Hurel. Tanguy has remained active, issuing several works per year in all genres through the 2010s, including the large orchestral piece Constellations (2019). He has won many awards, including the Grand Prix Lycéens in 2014. In 2021, a recording of Tanguy's Clarinet Concerto and Violin Concerto No. 2 was issued by the Jyväskylä Sinfonia on the Ondine label. Tanguy has been on the faculty of the École Normale de Musique in Paris since 2017 and has given master classes at many other institutions. ~ James Manheim, Rovi