He studied literature and law at University of Lyon, then became a music student at the Conservatoire de Paris, his teachers being Jules Massenet, Gabriel Fauré,[1] Antoine Taudou and Daniel Fleuret.
He wrote initially for the Mercure musical, and then he edited the Revue musicale SIM (Société internationale de musique).
Its first concert, on 20 April 1910, contained three world premieres: Gabriel Fauré's song cycle "La chanson d'Ève" (its first complete performance; excerpts had been presented earlier); Claude Debussy's "D'un cahier d'esquisses", performed by Maurice Ravel; and Ravel's own Ma mère l'oye in its original version for piano 4-hands, played by Jeanne Leleu and Geneviève Durony.
In 1924 he helped organise the first important exhibition on film at the Musée Galliera, "L'Exposition de l'art dans le cinéma français".
[9] In 1935, Émile Vuillermoz and Jacques Thibaud started a new project, called Cinéphonies, to create a series of short films of musicians performing classical music.
They employed directors such as Max Ophüls and Dimitri Kirsanoff, and artists such as Elisabeth Schumann, Alfred Cortot, Alexander Brailowsky and Ninon Vallin.