Jean-Maurice Mourat

Jean-Maurice Mourat, born 23 March 1945 in Vendée, France, is a classical music guitarist, composer and former director of musical conservatories. He writes music for guitar, as well as for flute and piano. He has written a number of transcriptions for flute and guitar. His musical compositions are published by six French publishers and one Canadian publisher. He is also the author of a number of pedagogical works on guitar playing. 
Education.
Jean-Maurice Mourat started his musical studies in his hometown of Luçon (Vendée). His first subjects were solfège (sight-singing) and piano. While studying solfège at the conservatoire de La Roche-sur-Yon, he started to teach himself classical guitar and jazz guitar. As well, he started to learn the clarinet. After meeting the Italian guitarist Oscar Ghiglia, the assistant of Andrés Segovia, he decided to focus on classical guitar. He went on to do advanced guitar study with the Brazilian virtuoso Turibio Santos. He also studied guitar with Angelo Gilardino. He worked on composition studies with Christian Gouinguené and later with Yvonne Desportes, a composer and former professor from the Conservatoire National de Musique de Paris. He also studied tuba with Gérard Pérez. Finally, he studied lute, which he performed with organ, harpsichord, and orchestral accompaniment.
Honours.
Mourat received a number of decorations and honours. After a successful concert tour in Germany, the mayor of Schwabach gave him a decoration in 1976. In 1988, the mayor of Torredonjimeno in Spain gave Mourat the Blason d’or of his town. In 1989, the mayor of Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois gave him the town medal for his contributions to the town conservatoire and for his musical activities.
In 1990, the Ministre de l'Éducation nationale named him chevalier of l’Ordre des Palmes académiques for Mourat's pedagogical contributions. In 2001, he was promoted to Officer of this Ordre. In 2002, after a series of concerts with flutist Philippe Neureuter, the mayor of Luçon gave him the medal of the city.
In 2012, the city of Linares and the Andrés Segovia Foundation gave him the Andrés Segovia medal for his musical achievements and for the concerto he wrote to commemorate the death of the Maestro of Linares.