Portrait
Bringing culture within everyone's reach
Bernard Foccroulle is a Belgian musician, composer and opera director. He has a thriving international career as an organist, harpsichordist and composer. His solo discography includes some 40 award-winning recordings. In recent years, he has multiplied his multidisciplinary projects, combining the organ with dance and video.
As General Director of the Théâtre royal de la Monnaie/Koninklijke Muntschouwburg from 1992 to 2007, he developed a vast repertoire ranging from Monteverdi to contemporary works. He commissioned and created numerous operas and opened up opera to diverse and contemporary artistic disciplines.
From 2007 to 2018, he directed the Festival international d’Art lyrique d’Aix-en-Provence, where he invited some of the world’s greatest directors and conductors and opened the door to a new generation of rising stars. He prioritises new works, regularly staging world premieres, such as George Benjamin’s Written on Skin (2012) and Philippe Boesmans’s Pinocchio (2017).
Committed to educating and supporting young artists, he developed the Académie du Festival d’Aix and in 2011 created the European Network of Opera Academies (ENOA) to support the education of young artists and the circulation of musical works in Europe. He also opens the Festival d’Aix to other musical traditions, including those of the Mediterranean Region.
Over the course of his career, Mr Foccroulle has repeatedly advocated for greater access to culture for all. In 1993, he founded the Culture et Démocratie association, which campaigns for the participation of as many people as possible in cultural life. In 1998, he created the RESEO European network, dedicated to raising awareness of opera and dance.
Mr Foccroulle holds honorary doctorates from the Université de Montréal and the Université d’Aix-Marseille and was the 2006-07 UCLouvain artist-in-residence.
Bernard Foccroulle will be introduced by Pauline Dupret (PhD student in linguistics, UCLouvain) and Bart Demuyt (director of the Alamire Foundation, KU Leuven).
Meet Bernard Foccroulle
Wednesday 14 February from 4.15pm to 6pm
- Round-table: “Cultivating Democracy”
- With a panel of experts (Sabine de Ville, Philippe Van Parijs, Céline Romainville, Luc Carton, Christine Mahy)
- Open to all
- Venue: Auditoire MONT 01, Place Montesquieu, Louvain-la-Neuve
- Registration: register on the form