A Belgian composer born November 23, 1953 in Liège (Belgium).
Bernard Foccroulle studied the organ at the Royal Liège Conservatory and took advanced classes notably with Xavier Darasse and Gustav Leonhardt. Passionately interested in both baroque and contemporary music, he notably recorded the organ works of Bach, Buxtehude and premiered the music of composers such as Philippe Boesmans, Brian Ferneyhough, Betsy Jolas, Xavier Darasse, Jonathan Harvey and Pascal Dusapin.
As a composer Bernard Foccroulle has tackled every instrument, every kind of music according to their specificities and reveals their rich diversity. He has written music for the organ (O quam pulchra es, 2009; E più corusco il sole, 2016, premiered at Radio France by François Espinasse), chamber music (Nigra sum for soprano, cornet and organ, 2012; E vidi quattro stelle for soprano, baritone, brass quartet, harp and large organ, premiered in Brussels in 2017) as well as works for orchestra (Am Rande der Nacht, cycle of lieder for soprano, chorus and orchestra to poems by Rainer Maria Rilke). He has undertaken many multidisciplinary projects associating the organ and dance (choreographies of Jan Fabre and Salvador Sanchis) or video (premiered by Lynette Wallworth in 2014).
An organ teacher at the Royal Brussels Conservatory, he has also directed the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie (1992-2007), the Festival International d'Art Lyrique of Aix en Provence (2007-2017). As a driving force on the music scene he founded in 1993 the association Culture et Démocratie in order to promote sharing and transmission in the democratisation of access to culture, creating, in 2011, the network ENOA (European Network of Opera Academies) in order to support the training of young artistes and the circulation of musical works within Europe.