Evariste

French singer-songwriter and mathematician

Evariste, born 31 January 1943 in Montluel, Ain, is a French, independent (and heavily criticized) scientist and former singer, now living in Paris. His father was killed at Auschwitz (Poland) during WWII, and he was home-schooled by his mother and relatives. During his preparational studies in Lyon 1960-63, he wrote his first lyrics aged 16. In Lyon, he obtained his doctorate in theoretical physics (3rd cycle) at the University of Lyon, which led to further studies and a position as assistant professor in physics at Princeton, USA 1966-67. Back in France, he started writing songs under the pseudonym Evariste (a reference to the French mathematician Évariste Galois, 1811-32) and he got a recording deal with Disc'Az where he released a string of singles and EPs, among which Connais-tu l'animal qui inventa le calcul intégral? became a novelty hit in 1966, with music written by Michel Colombier (later of Hollywood fame). In 1968-1970, he released 3 self-produced (some of the very first, French self-produced) singles and an EP, all with covers by the great Tunisian-French cartoonist Georges Wolinski, who was murdered outside the offices of Charlie Hebdo in 2015. Evariste's last record seems to have been released in 1975. Joël Sternheimer married Yuki Yamaguchi Sternheimer 6 Sept. 1979.