I was eight when I started to learn the accordion, taking private lessons with Eric Lovey and Veronique Siggen. Later on I went for professional training at France’s International School of Music and Accordion, the CNIMA in Auvergne, and there I decided I would devote myself completely to the instrument. Jacques Mornet, Nathalie Boucheix, Dominique Emorine, Roman Jbanov and Sébastien Farge were my teachers at the CNIMA, from 2006 to 2008. Keen to take it further, I attended master classes in Russia (with Yuri Shishkin), Finland (with Mika Väyrynen) and France (with Marie-Andrée Joerger, Claude Thomain, Franck Angélis and Eric Bouvelle). I went where my heart was leading, determined to play better and better. 

While I studied, there were of course competitions along the way. I began by winning first prize at cantonal level, in 1999, when I was awarded the Valais Trophy in Sion. Next I won the accordion medal for French-speaking Switzerland, at Alle in the Jura, in 2001; and then, in 2003, national first prize at the Swiss Championship at Couvet, in Neuchâtel. 

In 2007 my parents, proud and emotional, watched me gain international recognition by winning first prize at the selections for the French championships at Clermont-Ferrand and then first prize at the French Accordion Championships (ACF) in Paris, which made of me a (very grateful) French champion. That same year my travels took me to the USA, where I was a finalist at the Coupe Mondiale competition in Washington, and then to Russia, where I won third prize at the Trophée Mondial at Samara. Between dreams and reality, these heady days continued into 2008, when I was awarded the special prize for performance at the Glasgow World Accordion Championships in Scotland. During this period I also had the immense pleasure of accepting invitations to perform as a soloist with a variety of brass band ensembles. 

Events, however, suddenly put an end to my playing, for good. Still, my love of the accordion was overwhelming, and I felt I’d like to pass on my music to others. This led me to teach: first in Contrexeville (Vosges), in Rosheim (Alsace), and by giving a master class in Saint-Etienne, before founding my own Yves Moulin Academy in Orsières, in my home country. I greatly enjoyed running training courses, and being joint organiser of the Swiss Accordion Competition in 2014, and then organiser of the World Accordion Trophy, in Martigny. In parallel, I was fortunate enough to sit on various juries at international competitions in China, Russia, Portugal and Latvia. So I was still able to keep my passion in my life, by teaching and by accompanying other accordionists. 

In 2014 I composed a piece of music for a family occasion. Would I play it? Did I dare?! I did dare – and with my instrument back in my hands, I felt I was coming back to life. There followed seven years of tours and concerts all over Europe – a landmark being a duet in 2018 with Anatoli Taran in Belarus, Estonia and Lithuania – and also many compositions, ranging from transcriptions (Tchaikovsky) to film music (The Cleric) and popular international songs in the Eurovision Song Contest with “The Wolf”. 

In 2021 my career took a new turn as I released an album titled “Resilience”, and its first single, Paulinka, in a bid to give the accordion back its rightful place in classical music.