 At fifteen, he presented his firsts texts to Armand Salacrou, a French dramatist established in le Havre, who encouraged him to pursue his efforts.Le Havre, a heavily destroyed city during World War II and rebuilt in the structural classicism style will often reappear in Duteurtre's later works.At the age of sixteen, Benoît Duteurtre was fascinated with modern music, especially the work of Pierre Boulez.