Guy Bovet (Organist)
Guy Bovet is renowned in the world of music as a diverse, original and
intellectual artist. He is constantly on the road, travelling to all parts of
the world where organ music is played, and his intense touring schedule includes
about sixty recitals each year. Guy Bovet’s discography includes over fifty
recordings and features music recorded on historical instruments in Switzerland,
France, Spain, Latin America and Japan. Several of these recordings have been
distinguished with prizes including France’s Laser d’or and a German Grammy
award.
Guy Bovet’s activities in the preservation of historical instruments are
known throughout the world. He has acted as a consultant to master organ
builders and restorers in Europe, Japan and North and South America. With
his wife Marisa Bovet, he restored the organ of the Alain family, on which Jehan
Alain composed the greater part of his music. This now-restored instrument has
been installed in a former monastery building in the village of Romainmôtier
(Switzerland) where annual organ academies are held.
As a composer, Guy Bovet mainly writes music for theatre and cinema, but his
work does include all kinds of music. Much of his organ music has been published
by such companies as Oxford University Press, Schola Cantorum and Eulenburg).
Bovet has also produced versions of works for four organs by composers from
the Einsiedeln Abbey (published by Doblinger) and the complete organ works of
Spanish composer José Lidón (published by Schola Cantorum). His new edition of
Francisco Correa de Arauxo’s Facultad orgánica (1626), with translation and
comments in French, German, English and Japanese, was published in 2007 by Ut
Orpheus Edizioni in Bologna.
Guy Bovet is also a dedicated scholar and researcher, having published over
two thousand articles relating to the organ and organ music. He is Chief Editor
of the Swiss periodical La Tribune de l’Orgue. As an unrivalled specialist in
Hispanic organ music, he has carried out a survey of historical organs in Mexico
and Brazil in co-operation with UNESCO and the Swiss cultural foundation PRO
HELVETIA. For twenty years Guy Bovet has taught special courses for the
interpretation of Spanish organ music at the University of Salamanca in addition
to giving master-classes on this and other subjects at festivals and
universities throughout the world. He recently began to teach organ
improvisation at the Conservatorio Giovanni Battista Martini di Bologna.
Guy Bovet is a jury member at the world’s major international organ
competitions. Until 2008 he taught the organ at the Musikhochschule in Basel
(Switzerland) and from 1988 to 2009 he was organist at the Collegiate Church of
Neuchâtel. He is honorary citizen of the City of Dallas (Texas, USA), a doctor
honoris causa of the University of Neuchâtel and a recipient of the Japanese
Government’s prize for his activities as a teacher and the Prize of the Institut
Neuchâtelois (2007).
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