Bernard Foccroulle

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Bernard Foccroulle

Bernard Foccroulle (born November 23, 1953 in Liège ) is a Belgian composer , organist and opera director .

Life

Bernard Foccroulle comes from a music-loving family in which the mother plays the piano and the siblings also make music. He began playing the organ at the age of 12 and then studied with Hubert Schoonbroodt at the Conservatory in his home town of Liège. Further studies followed with Xavier Darasse and Gustav Leonhardt .

His popularity rose after he was invited to the Royan Festival. The recording of the complete works for organ by Johann Sebastian Bach on various historical organs on 18 CDs made him known beyond the borders of his home country.

He is devoted to both baroque and contemporary music and was at times teacher of music analysis at the Liège Conservatory. In the field of modern music he played premieres or first recordings of works by the composers Luciano Berio , Philippe Boesmans , Amy Johansen , György Ligeti , his teacher Xavier Darasse and others.

With the Ricercar Consort , founded in 1980 by Foccroulle, Philippe Pierlot and François Fernandez , who played on original instruments , he made numerous recordings of works by North German Baroque composers from the time before Bach.

His compositional work includes organ works, but also chamber music, some with viol .

In 1992 Foccroulle was appointed General Director of the Brussels Opera, the Royal Monnaie Theater . He continued the successful work of his predecessor Gerard Mortier , who had helped the opera house to gain international renown. In 2007, after 15 years, he ceded this office to Peter de Caluwe . He then succeeded Stéphane Lissner as artistic director at the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence from 2007 to 2018 . In addition to this, he taught from 2009 to 2019 as a professor of organ at the Brussels Conservatory . He continues to appear as a concert organist.

From 2001 to 2009, Foccroulle was vice-president of the “Opera Europa” association based in Brussels, to which 153 opera houses from 39 countries are affiliated.

Awards

In 2017 he received the Leadership Award at the International Opera Awards .

Works (selection)

Compositions

  • Résonances for organ and electronic organ (1976)
  • Acousmie for organ and synthesizer
  • Capriccio sopra ré, fa, mi, sol (Omaggio a G. de Macque) for organ (1986)
  • Cinq pièces pour viole de gambe (viol) (1981)
  • Gestes for 5 percussionists and 6 wind instruments (1985)

Fonts

literature

  • Pierre Delrock: Foccroulle, Bernard: Entre passion et resistance . Bruxelles, Labor, 2004. ISBN 2-8040-1937-3

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Marco Frei: How much reality can opera take? In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . 11th July 2018 .;
  2. ↑ biography on bernardfoccroulle (English)
  3. ^ Portrait of Foccroulles on the Horizons Bruxellois website
  4. ↑ Bernard Foccoulle reçoit le prix du leadership aux International Opera Awards. In: Festival International d'Art Lyrique d'Aix-en-Provence. May 9, 2017 (French).;
personal data
SURNAME Foccroulle, Bernard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Belgian composer, organist and artistic director
DATE OF BIRTH November 23, 1953
PLACE OF BIRTH Liege