The pianist André Dumortier was born in Comines , France in 1910. He participated in the Concours Eugène Ysaye in 1938, and it has been said that he is firmly entrenched in the public memory of Tournai. After the Second World War, he became a professor at the Conservatoire Royal de Bruxelles in Belgium, and later the director of the Conservatoire de Tournai. At the same time, he persued a career as a soloist and chamber musician of international renown. He was active even in his retirement, launching master classes in Tournai in 1988, during the course of which young pianists from various countries came together each year. André Dumortier also completed several recordings. Perhaps his greatest legacy remains that of a teaching placed under the signs of "my beauty" and "the essentiel." André Dumortier passed away on September 03 , 2004 in Tournai.