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Marcel Pérès spent his childhood in Nice. He studied organ and composition at the conservatory. At the age of fourteen, he became titular of the organ of the Anglican church of Nice. He then left to study abroad, first in England at the Royal School of Church Music, then in Canada at the Studio de Musique Ancienne de Montréal. Back in France in 1979, he specialised in medieval music. In 1982, he founded the Ensemble Organum at the Abbaye de Sénanque, which was to be the linchpin of his project. In 1984, he created the European Centre for Research on the Interpretation of Medieval Music (CERIMM) at Royaumont, which he directed until 1999. Each year, this centre undertakes research programmes in a multidisciplinary perspective. The Ensemble Organum's mission is to disseminate the results of this research to the public. The work of Marcel Pérès begins to be recognized internationally, and in 1990, the French State Secretariat for International Cultural Relations awards him the Leonardo da Vinci Prize.
In 2001, Marcel Pérès gave birth to the Centre Itinérant de Recherche sur la Musique Ancienne in Moissac. The CIRMA works on two main axes: the enhancement of the circulation of men, their thoughts and their know-how over the centuries, through music, and the development of complementary approaches between living traditions, musical archaeology and the sciences of memory. In 2013, Marcel Pérès was made Officer of Arts and Letters. The same year, he is honoured as the godfather of the "Marcel" bell of Notre-Dame, built in 2012 and blessed in 2013 on the occasion of the 850 years jubilee of the Cathedral of Paris. Marcel Pérès is also a composer. He has composed some thirty works, including Mysteria Apocalypsis (2000), Le Crépuscule transfiguré (2011), Missa ex tempore (2015).