Jean BOYER | AGOC

International concertist, frequently occurring in the United States and Japan, he nevertheless gave much importance to its liturgist organist, very attached to the sacred repertoire. Passionate about organ building, preferring instruments that have character, enriching those affecting, he is particularly interested in the South West of France and organ composers of the early seventeenth century (Titelouze, Frescobaldi , Sweelinck, Correa Arauxo) Whereas it was the golden age of polyphony written for the organ.

Born in Sidi-Bel-Abbes (Algeria) October 4, 1948, where his father Noël Boyer, a former student of André Marchal and Jean Langlais, held the organ in the St. Vincent Cathedral and taught piano and violin at Conservatory of this city, Jean Boyer received his first music lessons from his parents, his mother being organist. Desiring to become a young organist in the image of his parents, he studied organ by himself and after his degree, came in 1967 in the organ class of Xavier Darasse at the Toulouse Conservatory where he earned a 1st prize two years later.

In 1972 he succeeded Michel Chapuis the great organ of the church of Saint-Nicolas-des-Champs (Paris, III), a position he gave up in December 1995 in favor of Genvrin Vincent, one of his students. From 1975, it will also, following André Isoir, co-owner of St. Severin (Paris Ve) with Jacques Marichal, Francis Rosary and Michel Chapuis (until 1988).

Winner of the international competition of Arnhem-Nijmegen in the Netherlands in 1978, as a church organist he had the ability to be able to adapt his game according to the spirit of the place, the type of instrument, the present assistant and special liturgical habits of each parish. Also attaches great importance to education, including Jean Boyer felt that it was very educational for the teacher and that “demands attention, observation, imagination, patience and other qualities can only enrich the musician and his relationship with music and the instrument “[Preludes, No. 6, April 1994].

He has professed first at the Conservatory of Bayonne and then between 1980 and 1982 than in Brest and the Schola Cantorum in Paris before succeeding Jeanne Joulain the CNR of Lille (1982-1992) and especially in 1992 to its Master Xavier Darasse in the Conservatory of the organ class of Lyon. He was also permanent guest at the Sweelinck Conservatorium in Amsterdam where he taught since 1998 and for many years has given master classes at the Academy of the organ of Semur-en-Auxois (Cote d’Or).

He has trained several generations of organists, one of the main features is to focus on the present organ literature as a whole, without partisanship. Among them include Elise Rollin Yves Lafargue, Nicolas Bucher, Arnaud Pumir, Dong-ill Shin, Jean-Luc Perrot, Damien Simon, Aude Schumacher, Francis Jacob, Bruno Beaufils, Montagnoux Brice, Dominique Chevalier, Laurent Bouis, Sylvain Heili, Lionel Avot, Andrés Cea Galan, Willy Ippolito, Jerome Mondesert, Aude Heurtematte Michel Ježo Régis Rousseau …

Jean Boyer discography is small because much preferred to perform in concert and especially considered that the record industry had become too commercial thus promoting mediocrity. However, we owe him some recordings, the first (Stil 2103S71) conducted in 1971 at the organ Schmit (1772) Gimont (Gers) with French pieces, Flemish and Spanish seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, earning him the following year the Grand Prix du Disque and was described by some as “pure poetry” and always for the house of Stil discs, parts Boëly to François-Henri Clicquot organ of Notre-Dame-des -Fields (1405S73), the complete organ works of Brahms on the historic organ Friedrich Becker in Wechold (0605S76), the First Organ Book and Hymns in Grigny Nicolas Boisseau organ in the collegiate St. Sylvain Levroux (2604S79), Bach’s Leipzig Chorales the organ of Porrentruy (0607S88 and 1007S88) and by EMI (5,617,772), the organ works of Louis-Nicolas-Clérambault at the organ of Saint-Michel-in-Thiérache.

As a musicologist Jean Boyer has published several articles on the organ, including “The Great Room of C. Franck Symphony” and “The evolution of legato in the organ music in France” in the Swedish journal Proceedings of the Gothenburg Organ Academy (1994 and 1996), “Johannes Brahms and organ” in Japan Organist (1997) and “dynamic shades in organ music of JS Bach”, Proceedings of the conference of the Academy of the organ of Saint-Die-des-Vosges (1998).

Died June 28, 2004, he had also animate 6 to 16 July 2004 as the 37th President of the Academy on the theme of the chorale.