Michel MILHERES studied music (piano, theory and harmony, chamber music) at the Conservatoires of Bayonne and Bordeaux, and was awarded the First Prize for Harmony and the SACEM Prize in the class of Michel FUSTE-LAMBEZAT. Having learnt to play the organ with his father, he became the organist of Bayonne Cathedral, from 1970-1974, and then at Sainte Eugénie Cathedral in Biarritz, from 1974-2003. He won the First Prize in the Avila International Competition in 1977, the Jehan TITELOUZE Prize in Rouen, the Grand Prix de Virtuosité of the National Music Competition (Roger DUCASSE Prize).
     

      Since 2003, whilst teaching French literature and language in secondary schools, Michel has maintained a hectic and challenging, international organ career, playing throughout France, including Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, Chartres Cathedral, Nice, Monaco, Cannes, Cahors, Rouen and throughout the Poitou-Charentes region and the south west of France where he originates from. He has played extensively in Spain, in St Sebastian, Burgos, Santander, Bilbao, Vergara, Loyola, Seville, Valladolid ; in Austria in the Cathedral of Vienna, the Marienkirche and St Pölten amongst others ; in St Mathias Cathedral in Budapest, Hungary.
 

          2019 will be Michel’s 50th year as an organist, and Via Musica intends to make this a memorable year, to commemorate his long career in the service of the organ !