Having a Legrand Career: French Composer Michel Legrand

GREAT FRENCH COMPOSER (and arranger, conductor and pianist) Michel Legrand has written some of the Western canon’s most indelible — and incurably romantic — music for singers and for films.

After a hiatus from touring, the very busy Legrand comes to the Strathmore on Sunday armed with a partial version of his songbook and velvet-voiced singer Mario Pelchat for an intimate recital.

For Legrand, having many irons in the fire is business as usual: “I’m a performer,” he said by phone. “So this is why I do a tour. … I change; There is a beautiful variety in my life.”

Soon, there will be even more. After composing for directors including Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Lelouch, Clint Eastwood and, most famously, Jacques Demy, Legrand is going behind the viewfinder.

“I’m writing movies now that I’m going to direct very soon,” he said. And even better for those who can’t help but tear up at the strains of “I Will Wait for You” from “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg,” “These films are going to be musicals.”

» Strathmore, 5300 Tuckerman Lane, Bethesda; Sun. Nov. 15, 7 p.m., $50-$70; 301-581-5100, Strathmore.org. (Grosvenor)

Photo courtesy Patty Laing