Text written for The Bach Cantata Website (BCW http://www.bach-cantatas.com). My oldest memories about Bach’s organ music go very far into my childhood: when I was very young, my parents, my sisters and I were listening almost every Sunday to Bach’s cantatas and to the organ recordings played by Helmut Walcha or Pierre Froidebise. I still remember some of them very precisely, and when I played later on in Capel, Lübeck or Alkmaar, it revived beautiful old sound memories. When I was 5 years old, I wanted to start playing the organ, but this was impossible, of course. So I started playing the piano, with J.S. Bach as my favorite composer. And at the age of 15, I entered the organ class at the Conservatoire Royal de Musique de Liège, where I studied four years with Hubert Schoonbroodt. In 1972, at the age of 19, I got the chance to meet and work a bit with violin player Sigiswald Kuijken. Very inspiring experience! He also introduced me to Gustav Leonhardt, and I went several times to Amsterdam to study with him. I still remember each minute of these lessons. Gustav Leonhardt was very encouraging when I started recording the first Bach CD’s in the 80’s, he invited me several times to give organ recitals there and he facilitated some contacts to be able to record a CD there. I also listened to the early concerts given by the Collegium Vocale Ghent and Philippe Herreweghe. It was incredible to hear such a

Franz Schubert’s “Unfinished” Symphony is still one of his most popular pieces. And if Bach’s last Contrapunctus in “The Art of the Fuge” is uncomplete, its performance finishing “in the air” after his signature B.A.C.H. always provokes a strong emotion. But these are exceptions! Most of the time, uncompleted pieces are rarely performed, and even seldom studied. This is a pity because, as in the field of architecture and visual arts, fragments can sometimes provide a strong impression. Years ago, my attention was drawn to Jacob Praetorius’ choral fantasia on “Durch Adam’s Fall ist ganz verderbt”, one of the most important Lutherian chorales. That piece is one of the very first ones to be written explicitely “in echo” for three manuals and pedal. But I never took the time to really study it carefully until I started the preparation of a CD dedicated to this important composer. I found it so beautiful, so expressive, that I decided to compose an ending, in his style. Praetorius’ composition stops after the first four verses A – B – A – B, so that it was clear that the rest of the fantasia should be built on C – D – E – F, bringing the choral to its conclusion. Of course, writing that ending took me a lot of time, and I had to question many aspects ot his style, as well as the work of his contemporaries such as Heinrich Scheidemann. In that sense, my “composition” is not more than a

Speech given in Palermo at the Association européenne des Conservatoires. It is a great pleasure to be here in Palermo, the city of King Roger and of so many great artists, in Sicily, “la patria di tanti artisti”, a country of very ancient culture, where musical styles and forms from all origins have created such a wonderful cultural life and heritage. It is also a great honour and a privilege to open this conference of the Association Européenne des Conservatoires.  I have spent a lot of time in European conservatoires myself, first as an organ student in Liège, then as a teacher  of musical analysis in Liège, Brussels and Paris, and more recently as organ professor at the Conservatoire Royal de Musique de Bruxelles. As general manager of the Aix-en-Provence Festival and the Académie européenne de Musique since 2007 I have been in touch with a lot of conservatoires, Musikhochschulen and Music Academies all over  Europe but also in the South and East of the Mediterranean area and in America. It is therefore a real pleasure to greet so many friends and colleagues this morning. Allow me today to speak as a member of your community. I would like to question four main points: the need for creation, the question of the public, the role of the artist, the intercultural dialogue. But first I would like to share with you a very recent experience. The Indian Queen in Madrid A few days ago I was in Madrid in order to