Biography
Born in 1978, Romuald BOUCHERON began playing music at the age of four, starting with the accordion. He continued his musical training in the classes of Dominique VOISIN and Catherine DESMARETS. He then joined Roland CREUSE’s class at the Orléans Conservatory and graduated with a first prize in musical training at the age of just 15. He completed his training with courses in composition, first with Roland CREUSE (“his dear teacher”), then with Alain BERNAUD (who won first prize in the Prix de Rome in 1957 and was professor of harmony at the CNSMDP). Having completed his studies in composition, harmony, counterpoint, and orchestration before the age of 18 and obtaining his high school diploma, he then pursued scientific studies for several years, earning a doctorate in acoustics in 2004.
The beginnings of his training
From an early age, he was drawn to music, which he first discovered through accordion records [a sapphire on the mantelpiece and off he went!]. This fascination prompted him to ask his parents if he could learn to play music. He learned to read at around the age of four for the sole purpose of being able to decipher the names of the notes that André Allaire, a great local accordionist, scrupulously marked under each of the notes on the scores he wanted him to play.
A classic and fast course
He enrolled at the Cléry-St-André music school fairly quickly to study music theory and the oboe with Dominique Voisin. He soon joined the municipal wind orchestra and took part in numerous concerts, discovering the vast repertoire available for this type of ensemble. Three years later, he entered the Orléans’ Conservatory, where he studied with Catherine Desmaret and then Roland Creuse, his first teacher. At the same time, he took classes with Fernand Eché, Jean-Marie Poupelin, and Catherine Hérot-Darves in oboe and earned his gold medal. His first musical shock came when he participated as an oboist (more specifically on the English horn) in his first rehearsal with a symphony orchestra (Ravel’s L’Heure Espagnole).
Composer as a matter of course
He has been composing music since his earliest years. His music is distinguished by an approach that is often bold and deeply personal. A great lover of beautiful French-style orchestrations and their shimmering colors, he himself acknowledges the influences of the great classical composers of the early 20th century. This love for French music comes to him from composers whose influences he feels, such as Messiaen, Dutilleux, as well as Françaix, Poulenc, Ibert, Sancan, Boulez, or the Swiss composer Michael Jarrell, in styles that are thus very different.
Many of his pieces reveal rich, dreamlike soundscapes evolving between the most classical modality and the most complex sound clusters. His universe echoes the great masterpieces of the past while offering a personal perspective on contemporary music. His career as a composer began seriously at the end of the last millennium: in 1996 he composed the music for Nicolas Périgois’s first short film (La Mort Marraine), a film that would be selected at Cannes in the short film festival. The music of this short film, noticed in several festivals, was awarded first prize for short film music in Bourges. It was off to a start.
Since then, he has never stopped composing. Between commissions and personal pieces, he regularly composes for both small chamber music ensembles and large orchestras (wind or symphonic). He also engages in composing for short films or theatrical productions for various companies. Several of these works have been noted and awarded in international composition competitions (Orchestre Symphonique du Loiret, Ministry of Defense, Dieppe, …).