Wim Viljoen is a professor of organ and head of the Music Department of the University of Pretoria.
He has studied with Stephanus Zondagh at UP and continued his studies under Marie-Claire Alain in Paris.
He has played recitals in the USA as well as in the UK, The Netherlands, Switzerland, France, Germany and the Czech Republic. He has released 8 CD’s to date, amongst which are “Recital” (organ solo) and “Arioso for violin and organ” with violinist Zanta Hofmeyr.
Johann VEXO was born in 1978 in the northeastern French city of Nancy. At the age of 25, he was appointed Choir Organist of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris. Soon thereafter he was also appointed Organist of the Cavaillé-Coll organ of the Cathedral in Nancy. After teaching at the Angers Conservatory for 10 years, he is now Professor of Organ at the Conservatory and at the Superior Music Academy in Strasbourg.
Johann Vexo first studied organ with Christophe Mantoux, as well as early music and harpsichord at the Strasbourg Conservatory, where he was awarded Premier Prix in organ.
He continued his studies at the Paris Conservatory where his teachers included Michel Bouvard and Olivier Latry for organ, Thierry Escaich and Philippe Lefebvre for improvisation.
He earned Premier Prix in both organ and basso continuo and additional prizes in harmony and counterpoint.
Johann Vexo has performed extensively throughout Europe, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Russia. He has appeared as a featured artist in numerous international music festivals and organ series in cities such as Atlanta, Auckland, Dallas, Düsseldorf, Los Angeles, Melbourne, Montreal, Moscow, New York, Porto, Riga and Vienna. His performances have also included notable venues such as the Basilica of the National Shrine in Washington DC, the Wanamaker Grand Court in Philadelphia, the KKL in Lucerne, the St. Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney and the Yekaterinburg Philharmonic Hall.
Johann Vexo has also performed with various orchestras and musical ensembles.
He has been invited to teach organ master classes for the American Guild of Organists and at prestigious institutions including Rice University in Houston, the Curtis Institute of Music
in Philadelphia, Westminster Choir College in Princeton and Aveiro University (Portugal).
He has recorded several CDs on historical French organs, especially one on the JAV Recordings label on the great organ of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris.
Johann Vexo is represented by Phillip Truckenbrod Concert Artists, LLC.
Johann VEXO – Chartres 2009
Olivier VERNET was born in Vichy in 1964. He discovered both the organ and his vocation as an organist at an early age. After obtaining his high school diploma, he went on to study under the direction of Gaston LITAIZE at the National Regional Conservatory at St-Maur-des-Fossés.
In four years of studies, he obtained five Gold Medals, a First Prize in organ “Excellence” (unanamous) and the concert artist diploma, with honours.
In October 1986, Olivier VERNET was admitted to the perfecting studies course of Marie-Claire ALAIN at the National Regional Conservatory at Rueil-Malmaison where he was awarded the First Prize in virtuosity (unanamous with congratulations from the jury) in June, 1987.
He obtained the Certificate of Aptitude as professor of organ in 1988 and in June 1990 was awarded the First Prize in organ at the National Superior Conservatory of Music in Paris in the class of Michel CHAPUIS.
Olivier VERNET has been awarded numerous distinctions : First Prize of honour, U.F.A.M. (Paris), 1984 ; First International Grand Prize of Bordeaux, 1991. Finally, Olivier VERNET was the 1992 winner of the Yehudi Menuhin Foundation after having been the winner of the Foundation of Vocation in 1989.
Organist at St-Louis in Vichy and at the cathedral of Monaco, professor of organ at the National Regional Conservatory in Tours, Olivier VERNET leads an active concert career as organist and accompanying pianist for his sister, the soprano Isabelle VERNET. Partner of Guy TOUVRON and regular guest at France-Musique Radio, he performs in France, Italy, Germany, Great Britain, Denmark, Czech Republic, USA, Japon…
His impressive list of recordings has already received several distinctions including the Diapason d’Or, the “shock” of the Monde de la Musique, etc …
Mithra Van Eenhooge started studying music at the Conservatory of his hometown Bruges.
He also studied at the Academy for Music and Dance in Ghent.
He studied organ with Ignace Michiels at the Royal Conservatory of Ghent and obtained his masters degree with the highest distinction in 2008. Consequently he studied with Éric Lebrun in Paris whom he obtained the Prix de perfectionnement.
He participated at several masterclasses with O. Latry, L. Van Doeselaar, J. Laukvik, J-B. Robin and J-C. Zehnder.
In 2008 Van Eenhooge received both Prices at the organ festival in Kortrijk (Belgium)
Mithra Van Eenhooge is assistant-organist at the St. Saviours cathedral in Bruges and organist at the St. Katarina church. He plays concerts both as a soloist and as accompanist.
Mithra VAN EENHOOGE – Chartres 2012
Johannes Unger, born in 1976 in Schlema, East Germany, was marked in his early life by his musical parents. He received a complete musical training at the Special School for Music in Halle, which he then continued at the Academy for Music and Theatre “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy” in Leipzig. He studied organ with Ullrich Böhme, organist of St Thomas Leipzig, and piano with Markus Tomas. He continued his studies in the solo class of Hans Fagius at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Copenhagen until 2001. Furthermore he attended master classes conducted by Emanuel Ax, Christian Zacharias, Robert Levin and Ewald Kooiman.
Being the youngest participant, Johannes Unger won the First Prize in the renowned International Organ Competitions in Odense, Denmark, in 1998. In the Bach year 2000 he won the 12th International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition in Leipzig, along with the audience prize and numerous special prizes. In 2001 he won the First Prize in the 21st International Organ Festival St Albans interpretation competition.
He has performed in Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain, Australia, Hungary, France, Slovakia, the United Kingdom, and the U.S.A. (represented by Phillip Truckenbrod Concert Artists). He was invited to perform at famous festivals (Leipzig, Eisenach, Frankfurt, Chartres, Monaco, and Haarlem).
Johannes Unger is organist for the Thüringischer Akademischer Singkreis and accepts invitations from other excellent ensembles. Among these are the Dresdner Kammerchor, Dresdner Kreuzchor, Sächsisches Vocalensemble, and the Leipziger Universitätschor
Together with the pianist Christian Meinel he has dedicated himself to piano duets. First Prizes in the “Youth plays music” competitions, numerous recitals, and a CD production testify to this successful collaboration. His first solo CD, released in 2001, was recorded on the Silbermann organ in Rötha, near Leipzig.
Furthermore, Johannes Unger is leader of the Steering Committee for the rebuilding of the large organ in St Peter’s church in Leipzig. He supports the series “Organ-Point-Twelve” on the Jahn organ in St Peter’s. This organ was previously in the University Church and was saved just before the church was blown up in 1968.
2003-2009, Johannes Unger has been assistant organist at St Thomas church Leipzig. By July 2009 he is organist at St Mary’s of Lübeck.
Thomas Trotter is one of Britain’s most widely admired musicians. In May 2002 he received the Royal Philharmonic Society’s prestigious Instrumentalist Award. The excellence of his musicianship has also long been recognized internationally in his musical partnerships. He performs as soloist with some of best conductors. He has performed recitals in Berlin, Leipzig, Vienna and at London’s Royal Festival Hall. He has given the opening recital on new or restored organs in many places and he is regulary asked to perform on major historic instruments. He appears at the festivals of Salzburg, Berlin, Vienna, Edimbourg and London’s BBC Proms. He performs with leading orchestras such as the Vienna Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony orchestras.
Thomas Trotter’s career is also firmly founded on his relationship with the City of Birmingham in England. Here he was appointed City Organist in 1983 in succession to Sir George Thalben-Ball and he is now also Resident organist of the magnificent new Klais organ at Symphony Hall in the city where he gave the opening recital in october 2001. He is also Organist at St Margaret’s Church, Westminster Abbey in London and visiting Professor of Organ at the Royal College of Music also in London. Earlier in his career he was organ scholar at King’s College, Cambridge and he later continued his studies with Marie-Claire Alain in Paris where he took the Prix de Virtuosité in her class. He won First Prize at the St Albans International Organ Competition in 1979 and made his debut in London’s Royal Festival Hall the following year.
Alongside his weekly recitals in Birmingham, Thomas Trotter regulary performs throughout the USA and Europe. He is also an active recording artist. During 2002 he returns to London’s Royal Festival Hall, gives two Messiaen recitals at the “Philharmonie” in Berlin, returns to France, Germany, the Netherlands and the USA and gives the opening recital on the new organ at the Esplanade Concert Hall in Singapour.
Born in 1955, Olivier Trachier joined CNSMD Paris after his graduate studies.
Winner classes of organ and music writing, he expanded his instrumental training with renowned organists before being rewarded in the tenth international competition of Bruges.
He holds the great organ of Saint-Gervais since 1989 and has performed in concerts, especially in European historical instruments. Named writing professor at the Conservatoire de Paris (1989) after having taught at the Conservatory of Reims, he created the class called Polyphony XV – XVII centuries, which develops an original teaching of early polyphony.
For its part, Musica practica, course at the Paris Conservatoire in 1998, allows him to showcase the practical aspects of the corresponding music theory (solmisation, terms, improvised counterpoint and writing, measurements and proportions, composition and rhetoric).
Strongly attracted by the Renaissance repertoire, Olivier Trachier published his research in various publishers (Durand, Minerva-CESR, Valentin Koerner, Fuzeau etc.) and focuses on the evolution of musical composition in the past centuries .
For the organ, he adapted various works of classical composers: Vivaldi concertos, JS Bach, two Fantasias for Orgelwalze and other works by Mozart (ed Combre).
David Titterington is the Artistic Director of the International Organ Festival at St Albans and one of the world’s leading concert organists. He made his debut at the Royal Festival Hall in 1986 launching a career that has since taken him to many of the great international festivals and concert halls including Herkulessaal in Munich, Schauspielhaus in Berlin, Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto, Auditorio Nacional in Madrid, Megaron in Athens, and the Musachino Concert Hall in Tokyo. He was a featured artist of the European Festivals Association’s 50th anniversary celebrations in 2002 performing works by Kurtag and Messiaen at the Festival of Festivals in Geneva.
Committed to contemporary music he has premiered a number of significant works, in particular Diana Burrell’s 1990 BBC Proms Commission Arched Forms with Bells, and Terce for organ & accordion at the Spitalfields Festival, Hans Werner Henze’s Symphony No.9 at the 2000 BBC Proms with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Ingo Metzmacher, Toccare Incandescent by Stephen Montague, commissioned by the South Bank and premiered at the Royal Festival Hall to mark the 50th anniversary of the building of the Hall’s organ, and Giles Swayne’s Fourteen Stations of the Cross commissioned for the 25th anniversary of the Cambridge Festival in King’s College Chapel. Other first performances include Lyell Cresswell’s The Blackness of Darkness (New Zealand Festival commission), Petr Eben’s Job (Harrogate Festival commission), and Peter Tiefenbach’s Opening Day (Guelph Festival commission). In 2001 he collaborated with Maurizio Kagel in the London performance of Rrrrrr, and with Jonathan Dove in a premiere performance of Niagara. He gave the New Zealand premiere of Olivier Messiaen’s Livre du Saint Sacrement and the Finnish premiere of Petr Eben’s Organ Concerto No 1 with the Lahti Symphony Orchestra,
In addition to CD’s of works by Olivier Messiaen, Petr Eben and Johann Ernst Eberlin, David Titterington has recorded more than thirty programmes for the BBC and innumerable for radio and television networks world-wide, including the complete works of César Franck from the Abbey of St Étienne, Caen.
David Titterington was Organ Scholar at Pembroke College, Oxford and continued his studies in Paris with Marie-Claire Alain and Susan Landale at the Conservatoire at Rueil-Malmaison, where he won a unanimous Premier Prix. In 1996 he was appointed Head of Organ Studies at the Royal Academy of Music, London. Since 1993 he has given annual master classes at the Dartington International Summer School and since 1997 he has been Visiting Professor of Organ at the Liszt Academy, Budapest.
He has served on many international juries including the Grand Prix de Chartres, Prix André Marchal, BBC’s Young Musician of the Year, the Grand Prix Bach de Lausanne Competition, Graz International Organ Competition, 1st International Organ Competition Basso Friuli, Italy, and in 2010 the International Organ Competitions in Dublin and Moscow. In 1992, he was Artistic Director and Chairman of the Jury of the European Organ Festival, and in 2002 Artistic Director of the festival ‘Splendour of the Spanish Baroque’. He has received several awards and honours, including Honorary Fellowship of the Royal College of Organists in 1999, an Honorary Doctorate from the Liszt Ferenc State University, Budapest in 2000, Honorary Membership of the Royal Academy of Music in 2008 and an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Huddersfield in 2010.
Some recent engagements include Poulenc’s Organ Concerto conducted by Jan Latham Koenig at the Turin Opera House, the premiere of a new work by Pavel Novak for organ, soprano and trumpet at the Dartington International Summer School, a debut recital at Moscow’s International Performing Arts Centre, recitals as part of the South Bank’s Messiaen Festival Towards the Canyons and the Stars, Messiaen’s Livre du Saint Sacrement at the Brompton Oratory, and recitals at the Philharmonie, Luxembourg, in Waldkirch, Germany on the historic Walcher organ and a solo recital at the BBC Proms in 2009.
The current season includes recitals in Victoria Hall, Geneva, Tchaikovsky Hall, Moscow, the Winspear Center in Edmonton, Canada, Neresheim Abbey in Germany and at the Krakow Organ Festival.
Louis THIRY is a former pupil of André MARCHAL, one of the great instigators of the organ revival in France.
Louis THIRY was awarded the First Prize at the National Superior Conservatory of Music in Paris in the class of Rolande FALCINELLI. His activities are divided between teaching, concerts, radio broadcasts, and recordings in France and abroad.
He bas participated in numerous festivals : Lille, Besançon, Festival Estival in Paris, Festival du Marais, Festival d’Avignon, d’Haarlem, Festival 1982 in Moscou, Venise, etc…
His repertoire extends from the 13th to the 20th century and he is particularly interested in medieval music with its very rich characteristics. Jean-Sébastien BACH – whose ART OF THE FUGUE and WELL-TEMPERED CLAVIER he bas recorded – intensely sollicits his spirit of research.
Louis THIRY also gladly performs music of contemporary 20th century composera. Among them he is particularly interested in Olivier MESSIAEN, whose music he helped to be made known in concerts throughout Europe.
Besides his activity as a soloist. Louis THIRY performs often with different singera and instrumentalists. He is titular organist of the historical Lefebvre organ (18th Century) in the Chapel of the University Hospital Center «Charles Nicolle» in Rouen.
Louis Thiry has made numerous recordings among which those dedicated to the composer Olivier Messiaen were awarded the Prize of the Président of the Republic and the «Shock» of the Monde de la Musique.
Born in Cologne, 18 December 1906, Josef Zimmermann holds at the Musikhochschule in his hometown.
Student of Hans Bachem, Dominique Heinrich Lemacher Johner and it is choirmaster and organist at the parish church in Esch, and later in Saint-Étienne in Cologne.
After 1933 Zimmermann was organist and choirmaster of the Cathedral Basilica of St. Apostles before being organ professor from 1945.
Expert in restoration of historic organs. Primary responsibility for an organ class, many students today have important functions in the musical life of the Church, both in Germany and abroad.
It deploys an intense concert activity recognized as a true connoisseur of the French organ music (Dupré, Widor, Vierne, Messiaen, Langlais…), he is also dedicated to many mistakenly forgotten works, Rheinberger, Karg-Elert, Sibelius and Glazunov… It creates almost all organ works of Hermann Schroeder especially the Prelude and Fugue “Christ lag in Todesbanden” which specially dedicated to him.
December 18, 1996, he was named an honorary member of the Hermann-Schroeder-Company.
Joseph Zimmermann died on 1 August 1998 in Cologne.
