Gérard Buquet
Tuba Tutor
Born 1954 in France, Gérard Buquet is a tubist, conductor, and composer.
He studied the tuba at the Conservatoire de Strasbourg with Joseph Vaillant, at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris, and musicology at the Strasbourg University. In addition he studied composition with Claude Ballif and Franco Donatoni.
As an instrumentalist, he has participated in numerous premieres and has appeared regularly as a soloist at all leading festivals for contemporary music. He frequently played with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, the Orchestre de Paris, the Orchestre National de France, and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, as well as various jazz groups.
From 1976 to 2001 he was the tuba player of the “Ensemble InterContemporain”. During this time he also worked on several research projects at the Ircam Centre. He is the author of a book on the “contemporary tuba” (funded by the French cultural ministry). He performed several times Helmut Lachenmann’s tuba concerto especially with the Symphony Orchestra of the Hessiche Rundfunk in Frankfurt and the Philharmonia (Helsinki).
His teaching is inspired by coordination and breathing techniques developed by Jacques Dropsy.
Gérard Buquet taught chamber music at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris from 1997 to 1999, and then obtained the position as tuba professor there in 1999 until June 2022.
From 2000 until 2018 he held a professorship as director of the “Ensemble für Neue Musik” at the Musikhochschule in Karlsruhe, Germany, as successor of Peter Eötvös.
From 2013 until June 2022 he taught new music for all the wind instruments family at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris.