MARIE-BERNADETTE DUFOURCET BOCINOS

Musicologist, Organist, Composer

– Bayonne, Lapurdi, France, 1956 –

– Married to the Franco-Lebanese composer and organist Naji Hakim. They have two children: the poet and musicologist Katia-Sofia Hakim, and the lawyer, pianist and composer Jean-Paul Hakim.

1. Academic and Scientific Profile

Marie-Bernadette Dufourcet Bocinos is Professor Emerita at Université Bordeaux Montaigne, holds a PhD in Musicology from the University of Paris-Sorbonne, and is a graduate organist of the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris. Over more than four decades, she has developed a career at the intersection of academic research, artistic practice, musical creation, and international cultural cooperation. She has notably participated in Master’s seminars at the University of Worcester (USA), the University of Cantabria, the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM), and the partner University of Guanajuato (Mexico).

Following her collaboration with the distinguished French Hispanist Louis Jambou, who supervised her preparation for the Habilitation à diriger des recherches (accreditation to supervise research), she became particularly engaged in the comparative study of musical and cultural relations between France and Spain during the Early Modern period, with special emphasis on court music, the organ, liturgy, and repertoires associated with the circles of political and religious power from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries. This scholarly orientation was consolidated particularly during her period at the CNRS from 1998 to 2000, after which she developed a comparative research programme devoted to French and Iberian musical practices.

2. Academic and Honorary Distinctions

Her university career also led her to assume a number of institutional responsibilities, notably as Director of the Faculty of Arts and subsequently Dean of the Faculty of Humanities at Université Bordeaux Montaigne. She is currently Vice-President of the Société des Sciences, Lettres et Arts de Bayonne (SSLA), the oldest learned society in Bayonne, and Founding President of the association Les Amis de Marixa, devoted to the painter and poet Marixa, born in Oviedo and exiled in Bayonne (1914–1995).

In recognition of her academic and cultural activities, the French State successively awarded her the following distinctions:

– Chevalier de l’Ordre des Palmes académiques;

– Officier de l’Ordre des Palmes académiques;

– Chevalier de l’Ordre national du Mérite.

She was also appointed, in 2022:

– Corresponding Member of the Académie nationale des Sciences, Belles-Lettres et Arts de Bordeaux, France.

3. Direction of Major Projects and Franco-Spanish Cooperation

From 2013 to 2019, she directed the international and multidisciplinary ALFRES project (Les Alliances de la France et de l’Espagne au miroir des sociétés modernes (Politique, Économie, Culture, XVIᵉ-XVIIIᵉ siècles)), in partnership with Professor Begoña Lolo of the UAM. The project was funded by the Aquitaine Regional Council and brought together more than twenty international scientific, academic, and artistic institutions, including the Centre Roland Mousnier at the Sorbonne, the Centre de musique baroque de Versailles, and the Société des Sciences, Lettres et Arts de Bayonne, together with the universities of Bordeaux and Madrid.

Among the projects and activities resulting from this inter-university collaboration, the following conferences are particularly noteworthy:

– Sebastián Durón (1660–1716): un músico entre la Corte de Madrid y el exilio en Francia, Musée national du château de Pau, 2023;

– Hommage à Sebastián Durón, Cambo-les-Bains, 2016;

– L’Europe à Bordeaux : le mariage de Louis XIII et Anne d’Autriche, Université Bordeaux Montaigne, 2015.

Within the framework of this fruitful Franco-Spanish cooperation, Marie-Bernadette Dufourcet also coordinated the international project that led to the creation of the joint Master’s degree in “Music and Culture” between Université Bordeaux Montaigne and the Autonomous University of Madrid. The project was awarded the IdEx label of excellence within the French programme for the internationalisation of higher education.

In the cross-border sphere, she continues to foster scientific and cultural links between the Real Sociedad Bascongada de Amigos del País and the Société des Sciences, Lettres et Arts de Bayonne, of which she is Vice-President. More recently, with the institutional support of the City of Bayonne and its museums, she has also devoted attention to promoting the legacy of the Spanish painter and poet Marixa (1914–1995), her maternal aunt, who was exiled in Bayonne and whose artistic activity had a profound impact on the cultural landscape of Labourd during her lifetime.

Among her most recent publications, two works are particularly significant for the study of Franco-Spanish musical and cultural history:

– Tiempo de exilios. Sebastián Durón y Mariana de Neoburgo en Francia (Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, Madrid, 2024), co-edited with Begoña Lolo, devoted to cultural and musical exchanges between France and Spain in the context of the exile imposed by Philip V. Published within the research group “Música y cultura en tiempos de los Borbones”, the volume was officially presented at the RABASF in January 2025, with the participation of Professors Feliciano Barrios and Paulino Capdepón. Three further presentations subsequently took place at the Musée national du château de Pau, at the Hôtel de Ville of Bayonne, and at the Autonomous University of Madrid.

– Au-delà des Pyrénées. Dix siècles de musique entre France et Espagne. Essais en l’honneur de Louis Jambou (Presses Universitaires de Bordeaux, 2023), co-edited with Yvan Nommick and Cristina Diego Pacheco, a collective volume of more than 650 pages honouring the distinguished French Hispanist and bringing together studies devoted to the comparative history of French and Iberian music.

These publications extend a substantial body of scholarly work developed through numerous books, articles, and international conference papers on Baroque music, the organ, sacred music, courtly musical practices in France and Spain, the cultural role of queens, and, more broadly, the relationship between music and power.

She has regularly served on editorial and scientific peer-review committees for national and international academic publications, contributing actively to the dissemination and assessment of research in musicology, the arts, and the humanities. Her activities include collaboration with the international publishing house Peter Lang (the Musicology and Culture series), the journal Estudis. Revista de Historia Moderna of the University of Valencia, the publications of the Société des Sciences, Lettres et Arts de Bayonne (since 2004), as well as various leading university collections and journals.

Throughout her career as a university professor and to the present day, she has also undertaken a number of scientific assessment and advisory missions for the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research and the Ministry of Culture, within the framework of national committees dealing with accreditation, research, and heritage.

4. Artistic Activities

Alongside her academic career, she has developed an extensive international career as a concert organist. She has performed in France, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, England, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, the United States, and the Middle East, appearing at international festivals, organ series, conferences, and masterclasses, notably at:

Polytechnic University of Huddersfield (UK), University of Oxford (Faculty of Music), University of Cambridge (King’s College), Rice University (Houston), American Guild of Organists (AGO), University of St Thomas (St Paul, Minnesota), and Juilliard School (New York).

Among her most notable performances was the world premiere of Naji Hakim’s Seattle Concerto (Concerto No. 2 for Organ and Orchestra), dedicated to Marie-Bernadette Dufourcet and performed with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Gerard Schwarz on 6 July 2000. The performance took place at the inauguration of the C. B. Fisk grand organ at Benaroya Hall in Seattle, as part of the National Convention of the American Guild of Organists. The performance was subsequently broadcast several times in the United States.

She has also performed other concertos for organ and orchestra with a number of international ensembles, including the Baltic Philharmonic Orchestra of Gdańsk, the Reussisches Kammerorchester of Kronach, Ensemble Instrumental Vibrations (Paris, Lucerne), Ensemble Erwartung (Paris, Madrid), and the Lebanese Philharmonic Orchestra.

Her discography includes numerous recordings for international labels such as Priory Records, Motette, Signum Records, Organ, IFO Classics, and Rejoyce, recorded on historically significant and internationally renowned instruments, including the Cavaillé-Coll organs of the Sacré-Cœur Basilica and the Church of La Trinité in Paris, the Schuke organ of the Euskalduna Palace in Bilbao, and the grand organ of the Hofkirche in Lucerne.

As a composer, she has published a number of works for organ, piano, voice, and vocal ensembles, several of them commissioned works, including:

– Denbora, for four-hand organ, commissioned by the International Organ Festival/Quincena Musical de San Sebastián – European Capital of Culture 2016;

– Rondeau de Noël, for mixed choir, children’s choir, and two txistus or piccolos, based on the Basque Christmas carol Atzar gaiten, commissioned by the Ascèse Choir of Anglet;

– Poème, for soprano and piano, in homage to Marixa. UMP, 2020;

– Tres Cromos, for piano, based on poems by Marixa. UMP, 2021.