Guy Bovet

Biography

Guy Bovet has become one of the most respected organists of our times. He is equally at home in any kind of repertoire from the earliest to the most recent, and combines scholarship, musicianship and originality with a constant curiosity and a delightful sense of humor. He keeps a busy schedule of over 50 recitals a year all over the world and often combines his performances with workshops on topics as different as Mediaeval music, early Spanish and French music, Brahms, Liszt, Franck, Jehan Alain, Bach, improvisation and organ transcriptions. He serves on the juries of the greatest organ competitions such as Geneva, Calgary, Dallas, Tokyo, and St. Albans, and has designed and advised for many new organs in Europe, the United States and Japan.

Mr. Bovet’s organ compositions are becoming increasingly popular and are being performed and recorded by the world’s outstanding organists. Notable among his compositions are Three Preludes (including the popular “Salamanca”), his Suite for Souvigny and his Twelve Ecclesiastical Tangos. He has over 160 compositions in total including many works for stage and film, plus symphonic and chamber works.

Mr. Bovet has just retired from the Musikhochschule of Basel, Switzerland, where he has taught students from five continents over the past 20 years. He has held positions at several American universities as well as the University of Salamanca, Spain. He still teaches improvisation (since 2005) at the Conservatory of Bologna in Italy.

At home, Mr. Bovet is editor of the Swiss organ journal La Tribune de l’Orgue and a member of the Swiss Commission for Historic Organs. He is also curator of the organ built by Albert Alain, father of Marie-Claire and Jehan, which was restored and reinstalled in Romainmōtier, Switzerland. This was the instrument that inspired Jehan Alain’s organ works and it has become a center for intensive workshop, teaching and concert activities when Mr. Bovet founded the Romainmôtier Organ Academy in 1970. The Academy draws more than 60 students per year from around the world for various seminars and workshops.

Guy Bovet has made more than 50 recordings, most for the Swiss label GALLO, on historical instruments of Europe and Latin America. He has published works by various composers (including a new edition of the Facultad Organica by Francisco Correa de Arauxo), numerous articles in organ journals the world over and has done extensive research of colonial organs for UNESCO in Latin America and the Philippines. He speaks ten languages including Russian, Finnish and Japanese. Mr. Bovet is an Honorary Citizen of the City of Dallas, Texas and holds an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland. He has also been honored by the Japanese government for his extensive teaching activities in Japan. When not at the organ, he spends his time at the water where he enjoys fishing and swimming.

www.guybovet.org

Current as of June 2008