Professor at the Haute école de musique Genève, Xavier Bouvier studied music composition and theory. At the Conservatoire de Musique de Genève, he served successively as Professor for Music Theory, Head of the Library, and from 2001 onward as Deputy Director. From 2009 on, he served as Head of Studies of the Haute école de musique Genève. He is a member of the governing board of the Music and Performing Arts Faculty and the Teaching Council of HES-SO, member of the Conference of Swiss Universities of Music (CSUM), where he ran the working group on curriculums design during the Bologna reform. He participated in institutional and program accreditation in European and Chinese music higher education institutions.
Xavier Bouvier has been involved in musicology research projects focused on 18th century French music theory and music aesthetics. In the last decade, he has been running research projects related to trans-cultural issues, primarily in relation to China and India: intercultural dimension of the musical creative process, trans-cultural music theory, cultural borrowing, cultural cross-understanding, comparative music education and cultural diplomacy.