After his beginnings at the Ville de Paris from 1979 to 1983 as a music education teacher intervening in nursery and primary schools, then at the École Nationale de Musique de la Creuse as a music theory teacher from 1983 to 1986, he moved to Lyon where he was requested by Jacques Chapuis, President of the AIEM Willems.
Co-founder under the aegis of the AIEM Willems, and main actor of the music school Ryméa* in Lyon from 1987 to 2023, which he directed from 1991 to 2020, Christophe Lazerges has acquired extensive experience in the Willems® pedagogical practice with various audiences.
A specialist in early childhood from the age of 3 at Ryméa, he also worked for around fifteen years in nurseries with babies from 4 months old, and 10 years at the Montessori school of Lyon (nursery and primary). From 2013 to 2019, he intervened, always on behalf of Ryméa, with children (primary and secondary school students) of the Maîtrise des “Petits chanteurs de Lyon”.
It is therefore at Ryméa that he carried out most of his career, teaching children, teenagers and adults music theory, piano and choral singing, as well as children and young adults with severe disabilities.
At the same time, he worked closely with Jacques Chapuis for the Willems® training in Lyon and Paris.
From 2008 to 2012, he was elected President of the AIEM Willems, contributing to the renewal of the Willems® Movement by developing it into the Willems® International Federation (FIW), registering the name Willems, since then protected by ®, and putting practical pedagogy back at the heart of teacher training using video as a training and control tool.
Internationally, he has given conferences and courses in Spain, Portugal, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia and Slovenia. From 2009 to 2019, he was particularly active in Colombia, where he notably contributed to the emergence of a new Willems® training centre in Medellín. From 2016 to 2020, he was also frequently involved in Willems® training in Slovenia.
A member of the Willems® Movement Board of Directors for around thirty years, he resigned in July 2023 during his last Congress in Italy.
Retired from the management of Ryméa in 2020, he nevertheless continued his activity there as a freelance teacher for 3 years to support his successor in the management of the school, giving him time to train in Willems® pedagogy and in the management of the school.
He jointly and fully ensured until 2023 the training of the first class of the new version of the Willems® Diploma in 2 years instead of 3, a redesign in which he closely collaborated with Béatrice Chapuis-Westphal.
He thus has 44 years of career to his credit, willingly sharing his experience while constantly questioning the fundamental principles of teaching, which he considers as a living art.
*L’école Willems® Ryméa was created in Lyon in 1987 by AIEM Willems® under the direction of Jacques Chapuis as a pilot school with a teaching programme based exclusively on the Willems® method.