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Michel Bouvard
Over the past thirty years, Michel Bouvard has led a remarkable double career as concert
artist and organ teacher. Recognised internationally as one of the most engaging French
interpreters, he is regularly invited to perform upon the most beautiful historic organs
throughout Europe, as well as in the great concert halls of Asia and prominent venues
of North America. He has given more than 1,000 concerts in more than twenty-five
countries.Within the past several years, he has performed in some of the greatest cultural
centres of the world, including New York, Tokyo, Madrid, Montréal, Milan, Rio de Janeiro,
Amsterdam, Copenhagen, St Petersburg, Seoul, London, Leipzig, New Orleans and San
Francisco. In 2016, he will present the opening recital of the national convention of the
American Guild of Organists before several thousand attendees in Houston, Texas.
Michel Bouvard is indebted to his grandfather, organist and composer Jean Bouvard, student
of Louis Vierne, for inspiring him in his vocation. Michel received his early training at the
Paris Conservatoire (music theory and musicianship classes), while studying organ and
improvisation in the class of André Isoir. He also studied with the renowned organists of Saint-
Séverin in Paris, Jean Boyer, Francis Chapelet and Michel Chapuis. In 1983 he won first prize
at the international organ competition of Toulouse, which marked the start of his career. He
was asked by Xavier Darasse to succeed him as director of the organ class at the Toulouse
Conservatoire in 1985, and 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, which he directed for seven
years, and the establishment of the Centre d’Études Supérieures de Musique et de Danse de
Toulouse, a highly selective graduate-level programme for organists wishing to study on the
many historic organs in the Toulouse region.In 1995, Michel Bouvard was appointed Professor
of Organ at the Paris Conservatoire (CNSM de Paris) with his friend and colleague Olivier Latry.
Michel Bouvard has been the titular organist of the renowned Cavaillé-Coll organ of the
Romanesque Basilica of Saint-Sernin in Toulouse since 1996. In 2010 he was appointed as one
of the four principal organists of the Chapelle Royale at Versailles Palace.
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