LDV113-4

37 MICHEL BOUVARD Michel Bouvard Over the past thirty years, Michel Bouvard has enjoyed a remarkable double career as concert artist and professor of organ. Acknowledged internationally as one of the most engaging French interpreters, he is regularly invited to perform on the finest historical organs throughout Europe, as well as in the great concert halls of Asia and prominent venues of North America. He has given more than 1000 concerts in more than twenty-five countries countries. Michel Bouvard is indebted to his grandfather, the organist and composer Jean Bouvard, student of Louis Vierne, for inspiring his vocation. Michel received his early training at the Paris Conservatoire (harmony and counterpoint classes), while studying organ and improvisation in the classe of André Isoir. He also studied with the renowned organists of Saint-Séverin in Paris in Paris: Jean Boyer, Francis Chapelet, and Michel Chapuis. In 1983, he won the first prize in the international organ competition of Toulouse, marking the start of his career. Called by Xavier Darasse to succeed him in the direction of the organ class at the Toulouse Conservatoire in 1985, he pursued Darasse’s vision of partnership and collaboration with the city and region by organising concerts, organ tours, masterclasses, and the international organ competition with his colleague Jan Willem Jansen. These efforts culminated in 1996 in the creation of the international organ festival ‘Toulouse-les-Orgues’.