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The elegance of the vocal line, at times feverish, at times reflective, the evocative power of the orchestration, the expression, which is as intense in its brilliant power as it is in its contemplation – all this suggests that we are dealing with a masterpiece. LE MONDE, September 2020 – about E vidi quattro stelleBernard Foccroulle, born in Liège (Belgium) in 1953, combines a wide variety of aspects in his musical biography: his work as a composer, organist and artistic director of important institutions makes him one of the outstanding musical personalities of our time.
For his latest work, UIESH, which will receive its world premiere in May 2027 with the London Symphony Orchestra under Sir Antonio Pappano, Bernard Foccroulle set to music the haunting poems of Joséphine Bacon, the grande dame of Quebec’s indigenous literature. He celebrated great success in 2023 with the world premiere of his first opera Cassandra at La Monnaie Opera House in Brussels and with the German premiere of the work in June 2025 at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin. In February 2026, his composition Winterreisende (Winter Travellers) was premiered in two concerts on the same day: soprano Pia Davila, tenor Julian Prégardien and the Ensemble Modern under Lucie Leguay performed the work at a promenade concert in Frankfurt and at the Casals Forum Kronberg. Le Journal d'Hélène Berr for mezzo-soprano and piano quintet was premiered in concert in 2023, followed by an acclaimed staged production at the Opéra du Rhin and a performance at the 21C Music Festival in Toronto.
Bernard Foccroulle's compositional practice is primarily based on chamber music and organ music. He has created works such as E vidi quattro stelle for soprano, baritone, wind quartet, harp and organ, based on Dante's Purgatorio, Am Rande der Nacht after Rilke for soprano and orchestra, Due after De Luca for baritone and ensemble, and Quatre mélodies d'après Verlain for soprano and piano. Zauberland, a song cycle based on poems by Martin Crimp, premiered in 2019 at the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord in Paris in a production by Katie Mitchell.
Bernard Foccroulle began his international career on the organ in the mid-1970s with a repertoire ranging from Renaissance to contemporary music. In the 1980s, he was a member of the Ricercar Consort, which was mainly dedicated to German Baroque music. Since then, he has performed as an organist all over the world and premiered numerous works, including compositions by Philippe Boesmans, Brian Ferneyhough, Betsy Jolas, Xavier Darasse, Jonathan Harvey and Pascal Dusapin. Bernard Foccroulle's discography comprises a total of 50 CD recordings, including the complete works for organ by J.S. Bach, D. Buxtehude and M. Weckmann. He has also served as artistic director of the La Monnaie de Munt opera house (1992-2007) and the Aix-en-Provence Festival (2007-2018), among others.
Bernard Foccroulle’s compositions are published by Ricordi and Henry Lemoine.
2026/27 season
This biography is to be reproduced without any changes, omissions or additions, unless expressly authorised by the artist management.
A list of all works by Bernard Foccroulle can be found on the Ricordi website.
Méditation sur la Beauté de la Création et le comportement de l’homme
Recitals with organ
This concert brings together artists coming from different cultural backgrounds: Moneim Adwan is coming from Gaza and lives now in France; he sings and plays the ‘Ud, the traditional « Lute » in Arabic music. Soprano Alice Foccroulle and organist Bernard Foccroulle perform baroque and contemporary European music.
Two main themes will structure the concert: exile and love.
Programmvorschlag The hundreds colors of Exile and Love
Further programme proposals:
Programmvorschlag Bach Klavierübung III
Programmvorschlag Trio Schütz bis Buxtehude
Programmvorschlag vom 14 bis 20 Jhd
"Foccroulle’s score is written in a busy modernist style that can be delicate or rich, intricate or percussive, even noisy and violent."
BBC music magazine, 07/08/2025 – about Cassandra, La Monnaie Bruxelles | CD review
"What makes great opera: conveying deep impressions on eternal themes on a basis other than intellectual, namely through music, image and drama. And these three present themselves in a captivating way on the opening night at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden. (...) An operatic subject that brings together the seer Cassandra and the researcher Sandra is, of course, particularly well emphasised by the inclusion of so-called early music. The timbres of saxophone and marimbas, the skilfully juxtaposed sombre exclamations and cheerful dance orchestra parodies also make the evening easy to listen to."
Klassik-begeistert, Sandra Grohmann, 21/06/2025 – about Cassandra, Staatsoper Berlin
"Anja Bihlmaier utilised all the effects that Foccroulle's committed, captivating and crystalline score makes possible on the podium. (...) The orchestration seems to absorb the knowledge and expertise not only of the whole of New Music, but also of Wagner and Debussy. (...) His cantilenas are long and sustained, the moments of declamation ariosly condensed. Foccroulle thus proves to be first and foremost a sound magician with a variance and wealth of creativity that can be sustained over the entire duration."
Concerti.de, Roland H. Dippel, 21/06/2025 - about Cassandra, Staatsoper Berlin
"Foccroulle's astonishing sensorium for the singing voice virtually moulds itself to the text. Even in Cassandra's outbursts of despair, the songfulness prevails."
Die Deutsche Bühne, Michael Kaminski, 20/06/2025 – about Cassandra, Staatsoper Berlin
"This is pretty much everything I want in a modern opera. The story is compelling, important and beautifully crafted. The music is complex, textured, emotionally appropriate, lyrical and, for the reasonably open-minded, very accessible."
My scena, John Gilks, 04/06/2025 – about Cassandra | CD review
"All in all, an undeniably dramatic, visual and musical success, enhanced by a flawless cast and highly committed local forces."
Resmusica, Benedict Hévry, 16/09/2023 - about Cassandra, La Monnaie Bruxelles
"Bees that are evoked by the strings. Bees that are typical of a score that supports, promotes and atmospherically reinforces the exchange, that stands in symbiosis with it, in expressive modesty. A score that is also very relevant in its instrumental intermezzi, which echo what is said and shown."
Crescendo-magazine, Stéphane Gilbert, 12/09/2023 - about Cassandra, La Monnaie Bruxelles
"Not a minute of the visual sequences and not a minute of the music is boring in the almost two hours. The score is colourful, always newly composed, the structures build up from subtle to highly dramatic. The singing is carried by the music in the Monteverdi sense."
Klassikfavori, Sabine Weber, 12/09/2023 – about Cassandra, La Monnaie Bruxelles
"Foccroulle's composition is very skilfully measured, with a very rich play of timbres in the orchestra (...) and a recourse to extremely varied registers for his singers, ranging from the spoken voice, which can even be amplified, through all the more traditional expressions of singing to the cry. (...) The orchestration contains some technical masterpieces, such as the imitation of the flight of bees, similar to what Messiaen had done with the birds, apart from this figuralism, the score is a great fresco with many dramatic tensions that is very captivating."
Forumopera, Claude Jottrand, 11/09/2023 - about Cassandra, La Monnaie Bruxelles
"The elegance of the vocal line, whether vibrant or serene, the power of the orchestration, the intensity of expression in both the dazzling and the contemplative moments – everything invites us to call this a masterpiece."
Le Monde, Pierre Gervasoni, 07/09/2020 – about E vidi quattro stelle
"Foccroulle more than deserved the privilege of presenting such a homogeneous programme. (…) The melody of a Lutheran choir, which Foccroulle consistently highlighted, conceals itself in the preludes, (…) he performed as if he was playing the Silbermann organ in Freiberg Cathedral, one of Johann Sebastian Bach’s preferred organ makers. It was unbelievable how he played as if his hands and feet moved independently, he performed real miracles that one could follow on the screen underneath the organ."
EL PAIS, Luis Gago, 01/03/2015 – Concert at Auditorio Nacional, Madrid
"Darkness and Light is an artistic meeting of opposites in every sense. Sound and vision, black and white, life and death, movement and stasis, flood and drought, hopes and fears…(…) give yourself to these two artists and your attention will be held for an unbroken 70 minutes – and it’s not that often one can say that."
LIMELIGHT MAGAZINE, Clive Paget, 10/01/2015 – about the performance of Darkness and Light in Sydney
"Bernard Foccroulle, who is also the director of the Festival International de musique et d'Art Lyrique d'Aix-en-Provence, is a man with multiple lives since he is also one of the best organists in the world and one of the recognised specialists of Johann Sebastian Bach. (…) He performs works for organ masterfully, the instrument on which he excels. (…) This is without a doubt the most amazing performance at this Easter Festival, a real spectacle of the festival, a mystery which invites one to see, listen and… meditate."
DESTIMED, Michel Egea, 23/04/2014 – about the performance of Darkness and Light at the Festival de Pâques Aix-en-Provence
"The organist is a mystery who reveals the secrets of his sometimes inaccessible universe."
LE SOIR, Serge Martin, 17/03/2014
"Bernard Foccroulle, the excellent Belgian organist and renowned arts manager surprised his audience by suddenly placing Messiaen between Bach and Buxtehude. (…) In the Fantasy and Fuge g-minor BWV 542 he presented his deep understanding of polyphonic structure as well as his technical skills – both manual and pedal – in an overwhelming way. A unique concert in every respect."
DIARIO DE LAS PALMAS, November 2009 – Concert in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
"An ecstasy of Baroque - the organ comes to life under the fingers of Bernard Foccroulle, who takes us with him on a fascinating voyage of initiation. On average, 650 listeners crowd into the nave of Brussels Cathedral for each concert in the cycle of Buxtehude's complete works. The sexton rings the bells. Silence spreads through the cathedral. And suddenly, soaring, comes the sound of the organ: wise, jolly, majestic and dizzying by turns."
LE SOIR, 08/05/2007 – about the recording ‘Dietrich Buxtehude. The Organ Works’
Ausschnitt aus Cassandra - „Abendessen mit der Familie“ - La Monnaie / De Munt Brüssel
The organ project by Salva Sanchis & Bernard Foccroulle
Toccata - Angela Metzger (Orgel)
With Darkness and Light, the Belgian organist and composer Bernard Foccroulle and the Australian artist Lynette Wallworth have created a concert experience that goes beyond the boundaries of the traditional organ recital.