Composer and Assistant Professor at the University of Iowa, Jean-François Charles is also a clarinetist and electronic musician. He creates at the crossroads of music and technology, as in the soundtrack to Dziga Vertov's Kimo-Pravda No. 5 & 6 (with Nicolas Sidoroff and Krystian Sarrau, 2021) or in his musical chemistry work with Scientific Glassblower Benj Revis (Aqua ignis, 2018). His opera Grant Wood in Paris was commissioned by the Cedar Rapids Opera Theatre and premiered April 12-14, 2019.

As a clarinetist, he has performed with classical, jazz, and other sound artists, from Maurice Merle to Douglas Ewart or Gozo Yoshimasu. He worked with Karlheinz Stockhausen for the world première of Rechter Augenbrauentanz (Stockhausen-Verlag CD #59). His album Electroclarinet was awarded prizes at the Global Music Awards in both categories Contemporary Classical Album and Composition/Composer. The music was reviewed as full of drama and drive (Dolf Mulder, Vital Weekly) or colorful and jazzy, giving the listener a plethora of timbral explosions (Lori Ardovino, The Clarinet Journal). His most recent album, Jamshid Jam, was recorded with Ramin Roshandel and released on October 18, 2022 (New Flore Music).