The builders

Géo Voumard

Géo Voumard (Biel, 1920 - 2008), jazz pianist and radio man, founded the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1967 with Claude Nobs and René Langel. A figure of Radio Suisse Romande, he was one of the great craftsmen of the country’s musical life.

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Géo Voumard: the founding pianist

A man of piano and radio

Born in Biel on 2 December 1920, Géo Voumard joined Radio Suisse Romande in 1952 as a pianist, then accompanist and composer. There he hosted the programme Discanalyse, became head of light entertainment in 1966, then ran the entertainment department from 1969 to 1983.

In 1967 he put his ear and his network at the service of a wild idea: a jazz festival in Montreux, which he founded with Claude Nobs and René Langel. He died on 3 September 2008.

Claude Nobs, Géo Voumard and René Langel, the festival’s founding trio, in 2004.© Arnold Burgherr

Portrait of Géo Voumard on the programme Zig Zag Café (RTS, 2000).

1967: the first festival’s secretary general

In mid-June 1967, a few days before the very first edition, journalist Pierre Verdan interviewed Géo Voumard for Swiss television’s “Carrefour” programme. As secretary general and co-founder of the new festival with Claude Nobs and René Langel, the pianist introduced this jazz gathering due to run over a weekend at the Casino de Montreux. No one, then, could imagine what it would become.