Biography

Norbert Nozy was born at Halen on September 9, 1952. He started learning the saxophone with Raoul Vanattenhoven at the music school of Diest. At an early age he became a member of the local wind band, conducted by his father. He succeeded his father as conductor only aged seventeen.

After his secondary education he studied at the Royal Brussels Conservatory of Music and the Lemmens Institute at Leuven and obtained First Prizes for solfeggio, transposition, percussion, chamber music, harmony, counterpoint as well as the Superior Diploma for saxophone. Nozy studied conducting with André Vandernoot, Léonce Gras, Yvon Ducène and with Jean-Sébastien Béreau at the Paris Conservatory. Composer Victor Legley was his teacher for fugue and became his mentor. Nozy became one of the most famous representatives of the Belgian Saxophone School.

In 1970 he was awarded the national Pro Civitate Prize in Brussels and in 1973 he won the International Gaudeamus Contest for the interpretation of contemporary music at Rotterdam. He was a member of the Belgian Saxophone Quartet and the Belgian Saxophone Ensemble from 1972 to 1975 and represented Belgium at international saxophone conventions in Washington, Chicago, Luxemburg, Maastricht, Bordeaux, Ghent and Brussels. During the academic year 1973-74 he was visiting lecturer and teacher at the North Texas State University. In 1975 he won the Stravinsky Contest for Young Conductors organized by the Brussels opera ‘La Monnaie’. Still in 1975 he joined the Great Symphonic Band of the Belgian Guides as a saxophonist.

In 1984 he brilliantly passed the military band conductor examination and was appointed bandmaster of the Band of the First Belgian Corps in Cologne (Germany). In February 1985 he was appointed Principal Conductor and Artistic Director of the Royal Symphonic Band of the Guides which he conducted till September 2003. Under his conductorship the Guides continued to deserve and strengthen its unique reputation at the universal top of wind band music. He recorded over fifty compact discs with the Guides, conducted them in some 900 concerts in Belgium and abroad (Europe, Africa, America, Asia), conducted numerous world premiere performances (cf. chapter VII) and invited an impressive number of guest soloists including Barbara Hendricks, Evgeny Mogilevsky, Eddy Daniels, Richard Galliano, Daniel Blumenthal, Michel Becquet, Jean-Claude Van den Eynden, Véronique Bogaerts and many more (cf. chapter VII).

Nozy retired on September 30, 2003 as conductor of the Guides Band. In September 2004 the Dutch government called on Norbert Nozy as an advisor for the reorganization of the Dutch Military Music. From January 2005 to July 2006 Nozy was artistic director and interim conductor of the newly created band Koninklijke Militaire Kapel Johan Willem Friso [Royal Military Band Johan Willem Friso] resulting from a merger of both bands KMK and JWF at Assen. He recorded five compact discs with this band in a rather short period of time. Since then he has been regularly invited as principal guest conductor with this band. Norbert Nozy has premiered and recorded a lot of saxophone concertos. He regularly gives master classes in Belgium and abroad and has given recitals in many European countries, in Africa, Asia and America. He is also regularly invited to perform as a soloist with the major Belgian symphony orchestras and also with foreign orchestras. He has given recitals in numerous countries including Egypt, Turkey, New Zealand and the United States.

He is not only a renowned saxophone soloist but also a most valued and respected saxophone teacher. He has taught the saxophone at the Lemmens Institute in Leuven, at the Maastricht Conservatory (The Netherlands) and at the musical seminars ‘Les Rièzes et les Sarts’ at Cul des Sarts. At the Royal Brussels Conservatory of Music Nozy taught the saxophone and conducting and was conductor of the students’ symphonic band. In 1991 he was awarded the Fugue Trophy (Fuga Trofee) of the Belgian Composers Union in recognition of his continuous promotion of Belgian music.

In 2015 he celebrated his 40th jubilee as teacher at the Maastricht Conservatory 1975-2015. Norbert Nozy has often been invited as an adjudicator at national and international contests, such as the Tenuto Contest in Brussels and the International Saxophone Contest in Dinant, birthplace of Adolphe Sax, the Certamen Internacional de Bandas at Valencia (Spain), the Tromp Concours in Eindhoven (The Netherlands), the World Music Contest at Kerkrade (The Netherlands), the Maria Callas Contest in Athens (Greece), the Concours d’Orchestres à Vent in Strasbourg (France), the Coups de Vents contest at Lille (France), etc. Nozy was conductor of the top amateur wind band Sint-Michaël of Thorn (The Netherlands) from 1983 to 1985 and from June 2004 till 2017 he was artistic director of the Koninklijke Harmonie (Royal Wind Band) of the same Dutch town. With the latter superior amateur wind band, Nozy won the Dutch Championships in 2008 and the European Championships in 2013 and 2016. From 1989 to 1992 Norbert Nozy was moderator of the wind band music program ‘Gran Partita’ broadcast on BRT Radio 3.

As conductor or saxophone soloist Norbert Nozy is featured on over 70 compact discs. Among the world premiere performances Nozy conducted with the Guides Band we mention compositions by Jean Baily, Salvator Brotons, Stephen Bulla, Peter Cabus, Louis Cauberghs, Franz Constant, James Curnow, Marcel De Jonghe, Edouard de Boer, Johan de Meij, Frédéric Devreese, Eric Feldbusch, Jacqueline Fontyn, Elias Gistelinck, Ida Gotkovsky, Jan Hadermann, Louise-Marie Ingebos, Willem Kersters, William Latham, Victor Legley, Jean Louel, Toshio Mayuzumi, Paul-Baudouin Michel, Henri Pousseur, Jean-Marie Simonis, Werner Van Cleemput, Jan Van der Roost, August Verbesselt, André Waignein and Wilfried Westerlinck. We should also mention his excellent transcriptions of symphonies by Shostakovich, Dvorak, Mahler, van Beethoven and Tchaikovsky.

Author : Francis Pieters, extract from the book "The Royal Symphonic Band of the Belgian Guides"