Jean-Michel Nectoux (born 20 November 1946) is a French

musicologist Musicology is the academic, research-based study of music, as opposed to musical composition or performance. Musicology research combines and intersects with many fields, including psychology, sociology, acoustics, neurology, natural sciences, f ...

, particularly noted as an expert on the life and music of

Gabriel Fauré Gabriel Urbain Fauré (12 May 1845 – 4 November 1924) was a French composer, organist, pianist and teacher. He was one of the foremost French composers of his generation, and his musical style influenced many 20th-century composers. ...

. He has published many books on Fauré and other French composers, and has been responsible for major exhibitions in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

Life and career

Nectoux was born in

Le Raincy Le Raincy () is a prestigious communes of France, commune in the eastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the Kilometre Zero, center of Paris. Le Raincy is a subprefecture of the Seine-Saint-Denis departments of France, department and ...

, a suburb of Paris. From 1964 to 1968 he studied law at the

University of Paris The University of Paris (), known Metonymy, metonymically as the Sorbonne (), was the leading university in Paris, France, from 1150 to 1970, except for 1793–1806 during the French Revolution. Emerging around 1150 as a corporation associated wit ...

, and at the Sorbonne, from 1968 to 1970, he studied

musicology Musicology is the academic, research-based study of music, as opposed to musical composition or performance. Musicology research combines and intersects with many fields, including psychology, sociology, acoustics, neurology, natural sciences, ...

with Yves Gérard and musical aesthetics with

Vladimir Jankélévitch Vladimir Jankélévitch (; 31 August 1903 – 6 June 1985) was a French philosopher and musicologist. Biography Jankélévitch was the son of Ukrainian Jewish parents, who had emigrated to France. In 1922 he started studying philosophy at the � ...

.Gribenski, Jean
"Nectoux, Jean-Michel"
''Grove Music Online'', Oxford University Press, retrieved 14 January 2015 His doctoral thesis was on

and the theatre."Jean-Michel Nectoux"
''L'encyclopédie Larousse'', retrieved 14 January 2105 After completing a course in librarianship at the Ecole nationale supérieure des Bibliothèques (1969–70), he was appointed chief librarian of the Bibliothéque municipale de Versailles (1970–72), and went on to head the music department of the

Bibliothèque nationale de France The (; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites, ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository of all that is published in France. Some of its extensive collections, including bo ...

(1972–85), where he oversaw major exhibitions about

Ravel Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism in music, Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composer ...

, Fauré, the

Ballets Russes The Ballets Russes () was an itinerant ballet company begun in Paris that performed between 1909 and 1929 throughout Europe and on tours to North and South America. The company never performed in Russia, where the Russian Revolution, Revolution ...

Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ( – 6 April 1971) was a Russian composer and conductor with French citizenship (from 1934) and American citizenship (from 1945). He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of ...

, and

Mahler Gustav Mahler (; 7 July 1860 – 18 May 1911) was an Austro-Bohemian Romantic composer, and one of the leading conductors of his generation. As a composer he acted as a bridge between the 19th-century Austro-German tradition and the modernism ...

.Millot, Jean-Baptiste
"Jean-Michel Nectoux"
Les tetes des art, 30 July 2012 Nectoux joined the

Musée d'Orsay The Musée d'Orsay ( , , ) () is a museum in Paris, France, on the Rive Gauche, Left Bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, a Beaux-Arts architecture, Beaux-Arts railway station built from 1898 to 1900. The museum holds mai ...

on its establishment in 1985, as chief curator of musical activities, concerts and interdisciplinary exhibitions, remaining there until 1997. He was then appointed deputy music director of

Radio France Radio France () is the French national public radio broadcaster. Stations Radio France offers seven national networks: *France Inter — Radio France's "generalist media, generalist" station, featuring entertaining and informative talk mixed wi ...

, where he organised a series of concerts in 2000 presenting the complete works of

Debussy Achille Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionism in music, Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influe ...

. He was appointed "conseiller scientifique" of the new Institut national d'histoire de l'art. In 2009, he joined l’Institut de recherches sur le patrimoine musical en France. Alongside his official appointments, Nectoux was secretary of the Répertoire international de littérature musicale (RILM) from 1972 to 1985, and assistant editor of the ''Revue de musicologie'' (1979–82). In 1980 he founded the musicological series Harmoniques, which included the publication of the complete correspondence of

Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791) was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition and proficiency from an early age ...

. Nectoux's specialist areas of research focus on French music, literature and the arts in the years from 1850 to 1925; his studies have included

Proust Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust ( ; ; 10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French novelist, literary critic, and essayist who wrote the novel (in French language, French – translated in English as ''Remembrance of Things Pas ...

, Mallarmé, Fauré, Debussy, Ravel, the Ballets Russes and Stravinsky. The ''

Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language '' Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', it is one of the largest reference works on the history and th ...

'' rates Nectoux as "the foremost authority on Fauré".

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nectoux, Jean-Michel Living people 1946 births People from Seine-Saint-Denis French academics 20th-century French musicologists University of Paris alumni Fauré scholars