Michel Bouvard, one of today’s leading French concert organists, and a visiting professor of organ at the Eastman School of Music this spring, will be presenting two public concerts.
On Sunday, April 21, at 5:30 p.m., Bouvard will perform in Eastman’s monthly Third Sunday Concerts with the Italian Baroque Organ series at the Memorial Art Gallery. His program of organ music from 17th- and 18th-century Italy, France, and Spain will include works by composers Girolamo Frescobaldi, Francisco Correa de Arauxo, and Jean Titelouze. Admission to the concert is $10 for the general public, and $5 for students with ID.
On Sunday, May 5, at 7 p.m., Bouvard will give a concert featuring the music of Bach and other composers on the Craighead-Saunders Organ in Christ Church, 141 East Ave. Admission is free; donations accepted.
Bouvard enjoys a multi-faceted career as a concert artist and master teacher which has taken him to more than 20 countries. In 1983, he received the premier prize at the international organ competition in Toulouse, which is dedicated to French music of the 17th and 18th centuries. He succeeded Xavier Darasse as Professor of Organ at the Conservatoire National de Région de Toulouse in 1985, where he continued Darasse’s efforts in fostering the patronage of the city and the region by organizing concerts, special visitors, master classes, and the international organ competition with his colleague Jan Willem Jansen. This work culminated in the creation of the Festival “Toulouse Les Orgues” which he directed for four years, and the development of a new organ class at the Centre d’Études Supérieurs de Musique et de Danse de Toulouse, founded by Marc Beluse.
In addition to performing and teaching, Bouvard is frequently an adjudicator for the world’s most prestigious organ competitions. He has also served for four years as a member of the “Commission Supérieure des Monuments Historiques” (the Culture Ministry) of France.
Currently, Bouvard serves as Professor of Organ at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris where he teaches with his friend and colleague, Olivier Latry. He is also Organist Titulaire of the historic Cavaillé-Coll organ at the Basilique Saint-Sernin in Toulouse and is one of the four organists of the Royal Chapel at the Palace of Versailles
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Sunday, April 21
Third Sunday Concerts with the Italian Baroque Organ. Michel Bouvard, organist, Visiting professor of organ at Eastman School of Music, spring semester 2013. Music by Girolamo Frescobaldi, Francisco Correa de Arauxo, and Jean Titelouze
5:30 PM
Memorial Art Gallery, 500 University Ave.
Tickets: $10 ($5 for students with ID)
Sunday, May 5
Organ Concert by Michel Bouvard. Music of Bach and other composers
7 p.m.
Christ Church, 141 East Ave.
Admission: Free, donations accepted