Franck Bovet

For Franck Bovet art is not limited to simple entertainment but goes beyond this as an everlasting quest – reasonable or absurd – for the manipulation of the material with intent to free oneself from it.

For obvious reasons, this attitude leads to the multiple facets of his personality and the renunciation of all kind of stylistic or disciplinary barriers.

Thus, born in 1984, he starts studying piano at the age of 13, classical and jazz piano, in Draguignan, in the south of France. He quickly attracts attention, especially with his ability to improvise. As a result, after a journey through the conservatories of Aix-en-Provence and Toulon, he is invited to follow the teaching of Jean-François Zygel in Paris; there he trains in composition and classical improvisation. As a young virtuosic improviser he participates in the Liszt Festival in Châteauroux in 2005.

In parallel to this course, he continues his education in jazz and improvisation with well-known musicians such as Nicolas Folmer (director from Paris Jazz BigBand), Elie Portal, Marc Boscherini and Jean-François Bonnel. Besides this he is the recipient of the SACEM award for jazz harmony and gives several concerts, (notably at the Festival of Jazz in Porquerolles in 2007). His jazz work is compiled in a double CD “Sumbolom” published in 2009 with 24 original compositions (as a duo with the drummer Philippe Mejean).

In addition to the practical work comes a university level musical theory training at the University of Aix-en-Provence, whose second Master degree he accomplishes with great distinction and a grant to pursue further studies with François Decarsin. His research field considers new harmonic concepts and the coding of related software.

Franck Bovet also distinguishes himself as a pedagogue of jazz, improvisation, classical piano, music history and composition. He teaches in numerous schools, music academies and conservatories and gives several master classes, in France (Paris, Rouen, Marseille, Aubagne, Toulon, Cuers and Draguignan) and Belgium (Liège, Eupen, Waremme and Malmedy).

In the end his work as a musician extends even further to composition which he studied in Belgium (Conservatoire Royal Supérieur of Liège, class of Michel Fourgon) and in the Netherlands (Conservatorium of Maastricht, class of Robert HP Platz) in 2011-13. Incidentally, he assisted and worked with numerous renowned composers, namely Pascal Dusapin, Jean-Claude Risset, Dan Lustgarten, François Rossé, Michel Fourgon, Bauduoin de Jaer, Gilles Gobert, Robert HP Platz and Georges Bœuf.
As a composer himself he created several dozen pieces for different combinations of instruments. Amongst his most notable works are the following: “The Bells” (commissioned for the Festival International des Musiques d’Ecrans in France (2007), “Geistreich” (commissioned for the Festival Play Bach in France (2012), “Pièce pour carillon” (Maastricht Bells Festival in the Netherlands (2012), “Auca” (Festival Ats Musica in Belgium (2012), “AUM” (Opening of the academic year of the Conservatory of Liège in Belgium (2013), “Yggdrasil” (1st prize at the Competition of Composition, international prize MUSMA (2013). This last piece was sung by different choirs in multiple countries at the MUSMA Festival (Italy, Poland, Switzerland, etc.).
As a recognized musician, decorated in multiple music domains, Franck Bovet lives in Belgium where he pursues his work as an artist and producer throughout Europe.