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The French harpsichordist, Françoise Baudlot-Jollis, was born in Paris in a family with no particular musical background. She took a very young liking for music, working on the piano, first with private teachers, then at the Conservatoire de Versailles, then, from the age of 14, at the National Conservatory of music of Paris, in the class of Lucette Descaves (1906-1993) a renowned piano teacher who trained many "first prizes". There were then "small classes" at the Paris Conservatoire, for the instruments "Principal", the piano and the violin. She won prizes in the piano, harpsichord - these were the timid beginnings of so-called Baroque music, and the first class of harpsichord Conservatoire, the history of music, harmony and counterpoint, not to mention music theory!
Specializing in the harpsichord, Françoise Baudlot began a career as a harpsichordist soloist - among others with Jeunesses musicales de France-, but also appearing in chamber orchestras (like the Orchestre de Chambre Paul Kuentz) and small instrumental ensembles, giving concerts in Paris, France and abroad. She also has recorded several discs, alone or with orchestra. At the same time, she had followed the necessary training, which was then done at Racine high school in Paris, to obtain the certificate of aptitude for teaching music in high schools. This is how she was appointed, in 1958, for her first job, at the Lycée de Garçons du Mans (Boys' School of Le Mans), on the post left vacant by Daniel Arluison, who, after 20 years of presence in high school, had obtained his transfer for the Lycée d’Aix-en-Provence.
At that time, aged 28, Françoise Baudlot was already married to Georges Jollis, a asinger with a bass voice, who performed in different choires, and the couple had a daughter, three years old, Muriel. Françoise Baudlot was Professor at the Lycée du Mans for six years (1958-1964). During the first year, the new teacher made round trips by train from her home in the Paris region, an inconvenient and tiring solution for a mother of a young child! Then the family moved to Le Mans, in an apartment on the rue des Maillets, allowing the mother to raise her daughter and give her teaching in better conditions, while dad was doing his necessary displacements to perform in all France. Music classes given in general education are often difficult classes because the teacher has to do face both heterogeneous audiences with a few students already practicing instruments in the middle of a majority students without personal musical training, and a series of classes he only sees once a week. Furthermore, music education was frequently considered a "Secondary matter" that could be neglected without damage particular! Everyone who has taken her classes can testify to the seriousness of their teacher, who with a mixture of natural authority and empathy for his students, to keep his classes and to successfully teach them the basics of solfeggio, choral singing, and the history of music. Among her students who have had a musical career are Jean-Patrice Brosse, harpsichordist and current artistic director of the Commines Festival, Georges Deppe, internationally renowned pianist, located in Belgium, Vincent Cottereau, director of the choir "« à cœur joie ", Jean-Yves Poirier, professor of cello…
Although satisfied with her teaching at Le Mans, Françoise Baudlot requested, after six years, her transfer to the Paris region, as a city like Le Mans has limitations for someone who practices harpsichord, and who wishes to pperform with orchestras! She thus obtained her transfer, for the return of September 1964, in a very different institution: the Centre National d’Éducation de Plein Air (CNEPA; National Center for Outdoor Education) located in Suresnes, on the sunny side of Mount Valerian. Under this name which recalled his initial vocation to to receive young tuberculosis patients in need of sunshine, the CNEPA, which continues to operate under the name d’Institut National de formation et de Recherche pour l’Éducation des Jeunes Handicapés et les Enseignements Adaptés (INS HEA; National Institute of Training and Research for the Education of Disabled Youth and the Teachings adapted, is a reference institution for teaching children with disabilities. She was in charge of the musical training of the teachers who were doing a two-year internship to to be able to take care of classes of children with motor disabilities, where, judiciously, a lot of importance was given to so-called awakening subjects, such as plastic arts, textbooks, and music! She was moving also, with her trainees, in classes of children who are visually impaired, hard of hearing, or affected by various pathologies, using active education methods (Orff, Kodaly) allowing students to participate themselves to the development of music! She was always satisfied with this teacher activity which she kept until the end, and had good contacts with her students.
This situation in the near Paris region allowed Françoise Baudlot-Jollis (while being "Mrs Jollis" in her teaching activities, she had kept for her musical activities her maiden name by which she became known before getting married) to lead a harpsichordist career, mainly at O.R.T.F. (the ancestor of Radio-France), recording many works for harpsichords of the 17th and 18th centuries, playing with different orchestras, accompanying singers in pieces of early music. She was also very interested in contemporary music, and, as a pianist, she had worked mostly with singers for recitals of melodies, especially German (Lieders).
Françoise Jollis led these teaching and orchestral activities head-on. Achieving an implacable disease, she died in March 1990, just a few months of her 60s, when she was about to retire as a teacher. Her Early disappearance deprived her of many years when she could still have a musical activity. |
