Jean-François Bobillier

Jean-François Bobillier was born in Orsières in 1973. After his beginnings with the Echo d’Orny brass band, he completed his studies in music theory, euphonium, and conducting at the Sion Conservatory in 1994. In 1995, he attended the first military music officers’ school in Zurich, training that enabled him to conduct various military music orchestras. He entered the symphonic orchestra conducting class of Mr. Hervé Klopfenstein and the orchestration class of Mr. Jean Balissat at the Lausanne Conservatory, successfully completing his studies in 2001. He also studied orchestration with composer Mr. Franco Cesarini at the Zurich Conservatory. He has additionally participated in various symphonic orchestra conducting academies abroad, notably in Cernay (1997), Sarajevo (1998), and Pontarlier (2001).

In 2003, he placed 5th in the European brass band conducting competition in Bergen, Norway, and won the “Golden Baton” that same year, taking first place in the Swiss conducting competition in Baden. He is currently professor of wind orchestra conducting at the Sion Conservatory.

He served as director of the Geneva Cadets music school (from 1997 to 2005), founded the Ambitus Brass Ensemble which he conducted from 2001 to 2006, led the ECV (Valais Brass Ensemble) from 2006 to 2013, and has been invited as guest conductor notably by the professional wind orchestra “Aulos” (2004-2007), the National Youth Wind Orchestra (2008), the National Youth Brass Band (2012), and the Shostakovich Wind Orchestra (2022). He is regularly engaged as a juror at various festivals and competitions, such as the European Brass Band Championships in Linz in 2010 and the Swiss brass band competition in Montreux in 2021.