Born in 1980, Olivier Vivares took his first clarinet lessons at the age of seven. He studied at the Conservatoire National de Region de Marseille (class of Claude Crousier), at the Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique et Danse in Lyon, at the Conservatoire National de Region de Strasbourg (special course on the bass clarinet). Currently Olivier Vivarиs is studying at the Hochschule fuer Musik Trossingen with Prof. Chen Halevi. In June 2005 he was awarded with the 2nd Prize together with two other special prizes of the International Clarinet Competition «Carl Nielsen». Following this he was invited back to Denmark to attend the Soro International Music Festival where he performed a solo recital. With the support of the Association Francaise d‘Action Artistique he will be taking part on a tour of Asia and has also been invited to play as a soloist with the Sarajevo Philharmonic Orchestra. Apart from his solo engagements Olivier is keen to play chamber music, and owing to his interest in contemporary music he regularly plays with the «Ensemble Klangforum» in Vienna (Austria) and «Ensemble Accroche Note» in Strasbourg (France). So far they have collaborated in concerts at the Ars Musica Festival in Brussels and Musica Festival in Strasbourg. Since 2005 he is also a member of the Lucerne Festival Academy and has worked and performed with members of the Ensemble InterContemporain under the direction of Pierre Boulez.