Joëlle Bouffa

The French-Belgian pianist Joelle Bouffa was born in Pretoria, South Africa and has resided in Vienna since 1989. She was educated in solo piano, chamber music and vocal accompaniment at the Conservatoire Royal de Liège, studying under Bernard Foccroulle, Henri Pousseur, Marcelle Mercenier und Philippe Pierlot. She is a scholarship holder of the Chapelle Royale Reine Elizabeth in Waterloo, Brussels, where she studied under Wieslaw Szlachta, and later she studied in London, under Peter Feuchtwanger . During her studies in Liège, she sang in a choir under the conductor Philippe Herreweghe.

After her studies, she worked as the pianist for both the contemporary chamber music ensemble “Musiques Nouvelles” and for the Philharmonie de Liège. Schönberg’s “Gurrelieder” inspired her interest in instrument of the voice and in working with singers. Subsequently, she worked as pianist for the vocal chamber ensemble “Forlane”, on repertoire of the 19th and 20th centuries. She furthered her studies in vocal accompaniment with Geoffrey Parsons in London, Dalton Baldwin in Nizza, andwith  Erik Werba, Walter Moore and Norman Shetler in Vienna. Recently, she has gained valuable input through her work with Susan Manoff.

Ms Bouffa has played concerts in Belgium, Germany, England, France, Holland, Italy, Poland, Slovenia, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria  and Austria. She has taken part in festivals including the Festival de Flandres in Antwerp, the Midi Minimes in Brussels, the Festival de Musiques Contemporaines in Straßburg, the Festival de Stavelot, the Festival des Nuits Musicales in Liège, the Festucal de Wratislavia Cantans in Wroclaw/Poland, the Beethoven-Bonn Festival and in the Spring festival in Sofia. Radio appearances on France Musique, RTBF, BRT, ORF and BNR complete her pianistic palette. Joelle Bouffa has worked at the University for Music and Performing Arts Vienna in the Department for Solo Voice since 1995. Masterclasses with Cheryl Studer, Claudia Visca, Peter Schreier und Rudolf Piernay in Austria, and further masterclasses in Italy and Thailand add value to her pianistic activities.