Olivier Massot (1966) began his musical education at an early age as a bugler in brass bands and harmonies in his native Belgium.

Today, he is bassoon soloist with the Orchestre National de Lyon, assistant professor of bassoon at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Lyon (CNSMD) and composer.

Bassoon and composition are associated and complementary in his activities as a musician.

A self-taught composer, his meeting with composer Philippe Boesmans in 1985 was a determining factor in his aesthetic orientation.

He studied bassoon at the Conservatoire Royal de Bruxelles and baroque bassoon at the Koninklijk Conservatorium Den-Haag (Royal Conservatory of The Hague, Netherlands).

Since 1984, he has been bassoonist with the Musique Nouvelle ensemble and the Synonymes ensemble, with whom he performs and creates a great deal of contemporary music in Belgium.

During this period, he performed as a bassoonist with most Belgian symphony orchestras, but it was with the Belgian Radio Orchestra (RTBF) and the Belgian National Opera Orchestra (La Monnaie) that he collaborated almost continuously from 1986 to 1989.

In 1989, he became bassoon soloist with the Vlaamse Opera (Flanders Opera) in Ghent and Antwerp.
He remained there until 1994, when he joined the Orchestre National de Lyon in the same position.

The years between 1989 and 2006 were more devoted to developing his activity as a bassoonist.

As a composer, he won a grant from the SPES foundation in Brussels in 1988.

He has written for the Opéra National de Belgique (La Monnaie), the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Lyon, the Musée des Confluences de Lyon, the Les Muséiques festival in Basel, Switzerland, the Beauvais cello festival, and the choreographer Carla Frison…

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