Background
ANDRE, Maurice was born on May 21, 1933 in Ales, Gard. Son of Marcel Andre and Fabienne Volpeliere.
music educator trumpeter university professor
ANDRE, Maurice was born on May 21, 1933 in Ales, Gard. Son of Marcel Andre and Fabienne Volpeliere.
His father was an amateur musician. André studied trumpet with a friend of his father, who suggested that André be sent to the conservatory.
He was professor of trumpet at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris where he introduced the teaching of the piccolo trumpet including the Baroque repertoire on trumpet. André inspired many innovations on his instrument, and his technical mastery and profound artistry has contributed over fifty years to popularize the trumpet worldwide. Maurice André has performed and recorded all the great concertos of the trumpet repertoire with the most illustrious conductors of his time.
He is generally recognized by his peers as the greatest classical trumpet player of the century.
André was born in Alès in the Cévennes, into a mining family. In order to gain free admission to the conservatory, he joined a military band.
At the conservatory, André"s professor beat him out of frustration and told him to return when he could excel in his playing. A few weeks later, he returned to play all fourteen etudes found in the back of the Arban"s book without a single mistake.
André rose to international prominence in the 1960s and 1970s with a large series of recordings of Baroque works on piccolo trumpet for Erato and other labels.
Not content to limit himself to the standard Baroque trumpet repertoire, André also performed many transcriptions of works for oboe, flute, and even voice and string instruments. These recordings were (and remain) very popular, and were a strong component of the rebirth of interest in Baroque music in the 1960s. André had over 300 audio recordings to his name, from the mid-1950s to his death.
He had three children: Lionel (1959-1988), trumpeter and music teacher.
Nicolas, who plays the trumpet. And Béatrice, who plays the oboe.
One of André"s students, Guy Touvron, wrote a biography entitled Maurice André: Une trompette pour la renommée (Maurice André: A Trumpet for Fame), which was published in 2003. André spent the last few years of his life in retirement in southern France.
He died at the age of 78 in a hospital in Bayonne on 25 February 2012.
He is buried in the cemetery of the village of Saint-André-Capcèze (in the Lozère).
He was made an honorary member of the Delta chapter of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia at Ithaca College in New York in 1970.
Married Lilianne Arnoult, 1956. 4 children.