Almut Rössler church music director in Düsseldorf University professor Robert Schumann.

Well known as Messiaen interpreter, after many years of close collaboration with the composer. Its cycle “Meditations on the Mystery of the Holy Trinity” in 1972 led them to the European creation of the work ; the same in 1986 was played for the first time in Europe and the United States the “Livre du Saint Sacrement”.

Almut Rössler studied organ, piano and church in Detmold with Michael Schneider and Gaston Litaize in Paris (Organ), with Hans Richter Haaser (piano) and Kurt Thomas. She received the State examination for Church music.

During her career, she has given concerts throughout Germany, most European countries, USA, Canada, Japan, Korea and Israel, including the Berlin Philharmonic, the Alte Oper Frankfurt, the Royal Festival Hall in London, the Holy Osaka Symphony Hall in Japan and the Messiaen concerts in the Church of the Trinity, Paris.

Radio and television shows were made, among others, the PBS BBC, NHK Tokyo Radio France, Boston and almost all German radio stations.

She has participated as an artist and artistic director of various major festivals and music festivals, such as Messiaen celebrations Düsseldorf 1968, 1972, 1979 and 1986. She founded and directed the choir of St. John of 1967-1997 .

Prize of the German Record Critics in 1973 for his recording of Messiaen on “Meditations on the Mystery of the Holy Trinity,” Academic Palms in 1981 in France, elected organist of the year at the University of Michigan in 1986 recognition of his contribution to music.

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almut_R%C3%B6ssler

Born in Germany, Elisabeth ROLOFF is recognised internationally as an outstanding concert organist. She has performed in many important cathedrals, churches and concert halls in Europe (including the Royal Festival Hall in London and Notre-Dame in Paris) as well as in the United States, Mexico, Russia and South America (Buenos Aires, Montevideo and San Paolo). Since 1992 Elisabeth has also given organ recitals in the important music centres of Eastern Europe (Leipzig, Budapest, Prague, Kiev, Riga, etc.). She has been acclaimed by the critics and has been presented in major festivals as well as on the radio in many countries. Currently she is the organist at the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in Jerusalem and head of the organ department of the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, and appears regularly as a recitalist, accompanist and chamber musician.

After graduating from the Hochschule für Musik in Cologne, Elisabeth ROLOFF continued her studies with Ralph Downes at the Royal College of Music in London. In mid 1970s she studied French music with Marie-Claire Alain and while based in Paris she was appointed Organiste Titulaire of the German Church there. Her repertoire encompasses all important works from the international repertoire, and in 1985 she performed the complete organ works of J. S. Bach in the Jerusalem “Bach Organ Festival”, commemorating the 300th anniversary of the composer’s birth.

Elisabeth Roloff has made numerous commercial recordings, CDs, and audiocassettes of a large repertoire of organ works by Bach, Buxtehude, Mozart, and Pachelbel, as well as a recording of “Musica Sacra at the Redeemer Church in Jerusalem”, and a recital disc recorded on the organs of six different Jerusalem churches, “Orgellandschaft Jerusalem”.

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elisabeth_Roloff

Composer and organist, Grégoire Rolland began learning music at a young age. First studying the piano, he but soon became fascinated with the organ and joined the organ class at the Conservatoire Jean-Philippe Rameau, Paris. There, he earned diplomas in music theory, then organ. He further continued organ practice with Éric Lebrun and studied orchestration with Olivier Kaspar at the Conservatoire of St-Maur-des-Fossés. From 2001 to 2006, he also was a chorister in the Maîtrise de Notre-Dame de Paris. The Maîtrise is known as the finest French choir, and young boys receive there the highest level of voice and music training while performing throughout Europe. Upon graduating in music and musicology at Sorbonne University, Grégoire entered the competitive organ class of Olivier Latry and Michel Bouvard and music theory and analysis class at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris (CNSMDP). Grégoire Rolland has since pursued both careers of performer and composer.

Grégoire likes to think of music in terms of discourse, and he takes a particular interest in the formal relationship between rhetoric and music. He is equally curious of cuban and asian traditional music, which he explores in his own music writing. Grégoire Rolland has composed for both solo instruments and orchestra. In 2008, he was awarded the Robert et Marcelle de Lacour Foundation special prize for his organ work ‘Mes Rêves n’ont qu’un unique nom…’ (“My dreams have but one name”). In 2011, he was featured in the second season of “Appassionato” Young Composers, a special program of the Orchestra of Caen.

In April 2012, he has played the organ part in the world premiere of his piece ‘Caligaverunt oculi mei’ for male voices, organ and percussion at Notre-Dame de Paris, commission by Musique Sacrée à Notre-Dame de Paris.

Grégoire ROLLAND – Chartres 2010

http://www.gregoire-rolland.com/

Lionel Rogg’s career was launched with the works of J. S. Bach. After finishing his studies at the Geneva Conservatory with Pierre Segond for organ and Nikita Magaloff for piano, Lionel Rogg gave a series of ten recitals at the Victoria Hall, Geneva, performing the complete organ works of Bach. The success of these performances led to the recording of this impressive programme.

Since that time, Lionel Rogg has travelled the world, giving countless organ recitals in Europ East and West, the Americas, Australia, Korea and Japan.His recordings include three versions of the Bach’s organ works, the Art of Fugue (Prix de l’Académie Charles Cros 1970), the complete organ works of Buxtehude (Deutscher Schallplattenpreis 1980), Couperin, Clérambault, Grigny and Brahms, and recordings of Liszt, Reger, etc.

Professor of Organ at the Geneva Conservatory until 2001, Lionel Rogg has welcomed students from all over the world. He frequently gives master-classes in Universities and Honchshulen and is now be professor of organ and improvisation at the Royal Academy of Music in London.

More recently, Lionel Rogg has developped his talents as a composer. His catalogue contains numerous works for organ, piano, for choir and orchestra and for chamber music. He has recently been commissioned by the city of Geneva to write a concerto for organ and orchestra to mark the 1993 inauguration of the new organ (built by Van den Heuvel) in the Victoria Hall, Geneva. He is now organist in charge of this instrument.

In 1989, Lionel Rogg received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Geneva.

http://lionelrogg.ch/

Louis ROBILLIARD has a First Prize in Organ an improvisation unanimously awarded – from the National Superior Conservatory of Music in Paris.

Professor of organ at the National Regional Conservatory in Lyon, titular organist of the Cavaillé-Coll organ at the church of Saint François de Sales in Lyon, Louis ROBILLIARD is one of the most well-known organiste of his generation.

He plays regularly in numerous festivals, tours annually abroad, particularly in the U.S.A., giving many concerts and masterclasses, and serves on many international furies.

The interest he has for organ-bulding and protection of historical instruments has led him to be a member of the National Superior Commission of Historical Organe for 10 years.

He has made numerous recordings (works by Claude Ballif, Liszt, the Vienna School, Widor, as well as a record of improvisations).

He was awarded the Grand Prix du Disque and the President of the Republique Prize for his recording of « Imaginaire IV » by Claude Ballif.

At the center of his vast repertoire, Louis ROBILLIARD. performer, transcriber, improviser. acknowledges a preference for the 19th Century, whose aesthetics dictates that the organist be an « inspired architect », bringing together virtuosity, mastery of the instrument, science of Sound levels… all in service to music that is generous, lyrical and grandiose. For him, « Music is the indiscernible breath of another life, hidden, unfathomable… ».

Louis ROBILLIARD – Chartres 2007

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Robilliard

Georges ROBERT, titular organist of Notre-Dame de Versailles for more than a half century has gone Nov. 7, 2001, in his seventy-fourth year. Son of the organist of the Cathedral of Saint-Pol-de-Léon (Finistère), George Robert, who himself had played the organ in this church for 70 years, grand-son of Henry Sibout, organist St.-Catherine Honfleur (Calvados), George Robert, as once said Pierre Denis [The Organ, No. 114, April-June 1965], was a “running without failure, [an] poet of organ like his master André Marchal, [and] interprets anxious to deepen his knowledge of the classics”.

Born April 12, 1928 in Saint-Pol-de-Léon, he was first a student of his father, before arriving in Paris in 1941, at the age of 13, to become resident at the National Institute of Young Blind. He received here of teaching by true masters : Gaston Regular (piano), Eza (violin), Gaston Litaize (harmony) and André Marchal (organ). In 1946 he joined Yves Nat to study piano at the Paris Conservatoire, where he clinched a first prize four years later. Also a student of Suzanne Plé-Caussade and Marcel Dupré, he was awarded a first prize counterpoint (1951), a first prize for fugue (1953) and a first prize for organ (1953). The following year, George Robert was appointed professor of piano at the INJA and are also taught organ from 1969, as the CNR of Versailles (from 1975) and at the Schola Cantorum in Paris.

As church organist George Robert has had only one instrument : the organ Merklin / Gonzalez de Notre-Dame de Versailles, where he was appointed in May 1948. But as virtuoso the organ most major French forums have welcomed and indeed many other European and North America. Winner of the International Improvisation Competition in Haarlem (1955) and the competition Bach in Ghent (1955), the first execution price and improvisation of “Friends of the Organ” (Michel-Richard Delalande Price) in 1957, soloist at Radio-France, founder in 1957 of the Organ Academy “Music and Mountain” to Sarrances near Pau, in 1980 founder and president of the Organ Association of Friends of Versailles and its region Biarritz founder of Organ Academy in memory of André Marchal, a member of the District Committee of the organ to the General Council of Yvelines, correspondent of the High Commission of Historical Monuments of the Ministry of Culture, jury member Grand Prix de Chartres, George Robert was one of his few complete musicians have both a first prize in piano and organ 1st price, which made him not only a brilliant organist but also a pianist touch precise, and even a fine harpsichordist. Keyboard instruments had no secrets for this subtle artist.

He recorded the work’s complete organ works of François Couperin (1965), those of Caesar Franck (1994) and Augustin Barié, as well as French and Spanish music, sixteenth century -XVIIIème, organ Abbey Sarrance Aspe with the Gregorian Choir Pau direction : Jean Spaniol (CD Escale à Toulouse ESC 120). His catalog, although modest, however is representative of the music of his time: there is a piece for piano : Sonata for organ and pages published in the journal “Organ and Liturgy” : Prelude on reeds, Prelude to the Introit of the 1st Sunday of Advent, Offertory for the Second Sunday after Pentecost, For Elevation, For Communion and a Mass in five parts (Huguenin)…

Denis Havard de la Montagne
www.musimem.com
(With his permission)

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Robert_(musicien)

Born in Switzerland in the highly relative warmth of the month of February 1982, Benjamin Righetti studied the piano and the organ in a southerly direction, following the itinerary Neuchâtel – Lausanne – Geneva – Toulouse. Jean-François Antonioli, Yves Rechsteiner, François Delor, Jan Willem Jansen, Michel Bouvard and Philippe Lefebvre are the principal teachers who guided him towards the award of teaching and concert diplomas with the highest distinctions in these two instruments.

Between the ages of twenty and twenty-five he won a succession of prizes in six international organ competitions, one per year: the Concours Suisse de l’Orgue (2002), Bruges (2003), Tokyo-Musashino (2004), Freiberg (2005), Chartres (2006), and Paris (2007). In addition to these laurels gained among the world elite of his profession, he was also supported in his native country by the Fondation Irène Dénéréaz and the Pourcent Culturel Migros, and received the ‘Mérite Boyard’ prize of the municipality of Ollon (canton of Vaud).

A fervent advocate of a respectful approach to early repertoires, fascinated by the development of keyboard instruments, he also plays the fortepiano and the clavichord, as was the practice of organists in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. His questioning attitude to the future of the musical world has led him to participate in the creation of contemporary works, for example his recording of Jacques Charpentier’s Pierres de lumière (DBA Productions, 2006) at the organ of Chartres Cathedral. More recently, his recording of the six Trio Sonatas of J. S. Bach on organs by the firm of Felsberg (K617, 2010) has been critically acclaimed for its richly colourful registration, its finesse and its sonic splendour.

He has already been invited to play many prestigious instruments, celebrating his twenty-fifth birthday in concert at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, being selected to close the Bachfest 2007 on the wonderful Silbermann organ of Freiberg Cathedral, and accompanying Saint-Saëns’s Third Symphony at a sell-out concert at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw in 2009 just before flying across the Atlantic to perform on the historic Walker and Schywen organs of Costa Rica.

Benjamin Righetti has recently moved to the old town in Berne, where he is resident organist of the French Church, is in charge of the organ of the city’s Kultur-Casino, and holds a teaching post at the Berne University of the Arts / Department of Music (Church music – Bachelor – Master). In the summer he also dispenses pedagogical guidance at the Académie de Saessolsheim (Alsace), while in winter, if his concert schedule is empty for the moment, one is more likely to meet him on a snow-covered mountainside!

Benjamin RIGHETTI – Chartres 2009

http://www.415.ch/

Françoise Rieunier won eight first prizes at the Music National Conservatory of Paris, including those running on the organ and improvisation awarded unanimously first named by a prestigious jury (André Marchal, Marie-Claire Alain, Pierre Cochereau, Jean Guillou…)

She then stayed in Italy for three years and has studied with renowned organists as Luigi Tagliavini and Fernando Germani, and harpsichord with Ferruccio Vignanelli.

Loving every major musical trends, close to current composers Françoise Rieunier created many works of contemporary music.

Professor at the Conservatoire International, concert soloist Radio France, the Orchestre de Paris and many festivals, student and assistant of Olivier Messiaen to Great Organs of the Trinity, holder for 27 years of the Great Organ of St. Odile.

She also made a film about Mozart produced by Pierre Bellemare for television and, at the request of the Ministry of Culture, an educational film on the organ, screened in all high schools in France.

http://www.orgues-trouville.org/interprete-francoise-rieunier.html

Anders Riber was from 1973 to 2007 organist of the Cathedral of the Aarhus Cathedral – and therefore one of the main actors in the scene of the city of classical music.

A graduate of the Royal Academy in 1961. Organ degree in 1964. A student of Gaston Litaize in Paris in 1964, Anders Riber is 1965 to 1967 studying with Professor Georg Fjelrad to whom he would later succeed as organist of the cathedral.

From 1965 to 2002, Anders Riber teaches organ at the Royal Academy of Music and also worked as an examiner in the country’s music academies in Oslo and other music schools.

Anders Riber has performed as a soloist in Denmark and abroad. He was a member of the Danish Society of Organists music critic at Aarhus Stiftstidende a number of years.

Frequent juror for organ competition in Odense, Chartres, Lucerne, Poznan, Warsaw, Korschenbroich, Calgary, London and Vilnius, he served on the program committee for the city of Aarhus orchestra (1971-87).

Françoise Renet (Paris May 20 1924 Paris – Versailles March 23, 1995) was an important French organist.

She studied with Marcel Dupré (organ), Maurice Duruflé (improvisation), and Nadia Boulanger (harmony).

For 40 years she was associated with the great Cavaillé-Coll at Saint-Sulpice (Paris).

In 1955 Dupré named her Assistant Organist.

Upon his death she became Interim Organist (1971-1973), after which she was named Co-Titular Organist with Jean-Jacques Grunenwald. After Grunenwald’s death she again became Interim Organist (1983-1985), until the nomination of Daniel Roth.

From 1972 to 1990, Renet taught the organ class at the Marcel Dupré Conservatory in Meudon.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7oise_Renet