Maurice André, the trumpeter, has died in Bayonne: he was 78. Born into a mining family, André showed early musical promise and joined a military band. He studied initially with Léon Barthelemy. This enabled him to attend the Conservatoire in Paris, where he studied with Raymond Sabarich (whom he later succeeded as professor of trumpet in 1964), and soon he was winning prizes. His ability to excel continued with prizes in the Geneva International Music Competition (1955) and the ARD International Music Competition in Munich (1963). In 1953 he joined the Lamoureux Orchestra and later joined the Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra. 

His exploration of music of the baroque did much to resuscitate a forgotten repertoire and his performances, particularly on the piccolo trumpet, revived many hidden corners of the brass repertoire.

He recorded extensively, largely for French EMI and Erato. One of his most successful albums being of four baroque and classical trumpet concertos with the Berlin Philharmonic and Karajan in 1974 (André did not greatly enjoy the experience, commenting that Karajan worked too fast: 'he'd make a record in a single session! He was a businessman! If he'd worked for Renault they'd have sold ten times as many cars.'). The disc, however, sold over one million copies.

André gave his last concert in Béziers in October 2008. Among his many distinctions were the Légion d'Honneur and membership of London's Royal Academy of Music.