Denis Rouger is known for the rich sound of his ensembles and his sensitive interpretations. As the child of a Parisian family of musicians, Denis Rouger gained his first musical experiences at an early age and deepened these during his studies at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, where he won three first prizes in harmony, fugue and counterpoint.
He completed his training as a choral conductor in France and the Netherlands at the Kurt Thomas Academy and was awarded the Certificat d'Aptitude for vocal ensembles by the french Ministry of Culture.
As ‘Professeur agrégé’ at the University of Paris-Sorbonne, he directed the ‘Chœur de Paris-Sorbonne’ and taught choral conducting there for 20 years. From 1993 to 2003, he was choir director at Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral and at the Madeleine, where he was appointed honorary conductor in 2006.
Denis Rouger has also worked as a guest conductor with numerous renowned choirs in Germany, such as the Balthasar-Neumann-Chor, Landesjugendchor Baden-Württemberg, various radio choirs and the Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestra. Concerts have taken him to Italy, Canada, the United Arab Emirates, the Netherlands and Switzerland (Lucerne Festival). He has given masterclasses in choral conducting in Sweden, Bulgaria, France, Germany and Switzerland.
In April 2011, Denis Rouger was appointed Professor of Choral Conducting at the Stuttgart State University of Music and Performing Arts. The chamber choir he founded at the conservatory in autumn 2011 won the first prize at the International Choir Competition in Mosbach (Germany) in 2014.
In September 2024, he also took up a professorship in choral conducting at the Haute École de Musique in Geneva.
In addition to his work as a choral conductor, he composes and arranges French and German songs for choir. His arrangements on the CDs ‘Kennst Du das Land ...’, ‘... wo die Zitronen blühn’ (Carus) and ‘Rencontre - Begegnung’ (Carus/SWR) have been well received by the press and radio. In collaboration with Carus-Verlag, he published the sheet music book ‘Französische Chormusik’, which won the ‘Best Edition Preis 2019’.
In 2016, he founded the figure humaine kammerchor, with which he regularly gives concerts at renowned festivals.
In 2023, he was made an honorary member of the Tonkünstlerverband Baden-Württemberg.
Status 11.11.2024
