Born in Clermont-Ferrand, in 1942. He studied piano and organ, and at the age of 15 he becomes the holder of the organ in the church of St. Joan of Arc. He organizes regular concerts. Student in Paris from 1962 to 1965 he receives the teaching of Cochereau Pierre and Jean Guillou.
He began to give recitals in various countries and is appreciated in Belgium, Germany, USA, England…

In 1971 he became deputy to the great organ of Saint-Eustache and remained until 1993. During this long period, including that or restoration of the instrument has reduced it to silence, from 1977 to 1989, he frequently accompanied the “Singers of Saint-Eustache” directed by Father Émile Martin to the choir organ for some offices and travel for frequent concerts.
At the official inauguration of the restored organ, in 1989, it was he who accompanied the choir and the blessing of improvised verses and it provides one of the first major recitals few days later. In 1988 he had the honor to play at the opening concert of the World Congress of Organists on the great organ of Kings College, Cambridge.

In 1993 he was appointed organ Kleuker the holder of Our Lady of the Snows of Alpe d’Huez and responsible for organizing concerts where renowned organists will produce from around the world. Since 1988, he conducts summer camps for choir, under the direction of Christian Ciuca, pan flute virtuoso with the Romanian Cornel Pana and organ where he teaches personally.

From 1997 to 2006 he held the organ of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Paris, and helped make this magnificent instrument of contemporary style by organizing a large series of concerts under the title “organ duet” and at its official opening with the Schola Cantorum orchestra in September 2004.

He leads a triple concert activity : France, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, Russia, England…, professor at the Schola Cantorum in Paris and in various internships in France and Germany, and liturgical organist.

In addition to his solo concerts, he frequently with the musicians of the Ensemble Intrumental of Paris and the Jubilate Choir, directed by Christian Ciuca.

In 2004, he was named Knight of Arts and Letters and in 2010 he was promoted to the rank of Officer of Arts and Letters by the Minister of Culture.

http://imbertjeanpaul.fr/

Gunnar IDENSTAM, concert organist, composer and folk musician, is know throughout the world for his virtuouso playing, stunning improvisations and untraditional and original take on organ music. Gunnar Idenstam aims to expand his audience’s appreciation of the organ and to transcend the limitations of genre.

He comes from a background of classical music, but has always had a “distant love relationship” with the folk and symphonic rock music of the 1970s. In his work today he has brought these different influences into the context of organ music, when he builds bridges between the French cathedral music traditions, symphonic rock, and Swedish folk music.He also arranges grand orchestral master pieces like Ravel’s La valse or Debussy’s La Mer for the organ, managing to reproduce similar atmospheres and sound colours as the orchestra would. As a Folk musician he stands out from the crowd with his transpositions adapting the special qualities of the Swedish folk music for the organ.

To develop the wide-ranging music he creates and performs today he studied at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm. He then studied the French tradition with the legendary Marie-Claire Alain in Paris. In both countries he achieved the highest honours. In 1984 he was the first – and to date, the only – organist from northern Europe to win the ‘Grand Prix de Chartres’, the prestigious international competition in improvisation. Since 1986 he has pursued an international career as a concert organist and has played in venues around the world like Auditorio Nacional in Madrid, Monaco Cathedral, St Eustache cathedral in Paris, Kölner Philharmonie Konzertsaal, Concert Hall Ivan Cankar in Ljubljana and Spivey Hall in Atlanta, USA. In 2011-12 he performed twice in Mariinsky Concert Hall in St. Petersburg, as well as several times in the Center of Performing Arts in Moscow to name a few.

Gunnar Idenstam is also a popular musician at music festivals and has performed at the Risör Chamber Music Festival, Stavanger International Chamber Music Festival, Lahti Organ Festival, Karlsruher Orgelsommer, Bergen Sacred Music Festival, and Potsdamer Festspiele among others.

He collaborates with other musicians such as Johan Hedin (nyckelharpa), Christian Lindberg (trombone), Anders Paulsson (soprano saxophone), Lisa Rydberg (violin) ABBA legend Benny Andersson and dancer and choreographer Virpi Pahkinen.

Gunnar Idenstam’s arrangements of orchestral works by Ravel and Debussy are greatly admired and widely performed and are recorded for his next solo CD on BIS Records. Another solo CD is Cathedral Music (BIS-Northern Lights) with a collection of his own compositions. In 2004 was the release of the first of his Swedish folk music CD:s, in surround, with Johan Hedin, nyckelharpa, and the duo since then frequently tours Europe and Japan.

In 2012 Gunnar Idenstam was awarded the prize of “Interpreter of the year” by the Royal Academy of Music. The Prize was presented to him by His Majesty King Carl XVI Gustav of Sweden. In June 2013 he received the Litteris et Artibus – a royal medal for recognition of eminent skills in the artistic field. Idenstam is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music since May 2013.

http://www.idenstam.org/

Margareta Hürholz was born in 1954 and was appointed professor of organ at the Cologne Musikhochschule in 1997 where she had been a student from 1970 to 1978.

Further studies followed with Marie-Claire Alain in Paris preceding the commencement of a demanding international playing and adjudicating career.

Possessing a wide and eclectic repertoire MH has formed a musical partnership with trumpeter Marcus Stockhausen, specialising in avant garde music.

Since 2003 she has initiated an annual series of new music repertoire concerts centred on the Ahrend organ of the Ursuline Church in Cologne where she is organist.

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margareta_H%C3%BCrholz

Born on St Cecilia s Day 1930, Peter Hurford studied briefly at the Royal College of Music in London, before taking degrees in music and law at Cambridge University.

White Master of the Music at St Albans Cathedral (from which he retired in 1978 after 21 Years service) he founded the International Organ Festival which in its thirty years. has done much to restore the organ to the mainstream of music-making, and through bits competitions has launched many now-famous artists.

Peter Hurford plays concerts regularly in Europe, North America, Australie, and the Far East.

He is one of the most recorded instrumentalists of the past twenty years : November 22, 1930 – Minehead, Somerset, Englandnown particularly for his interprétation of Bach’s complete organ music – recently reissued by Decca on seventeen compact discs. (Volume 3 of the original LP series was awarded «Best Instrumental Recording», by The Gramophone magazine in 1979 – still, today, the only occasion that this prestigîous distinction has been won by an organist. His separate Bach recordings for the BBC occupied 34 week, broadcast programmes in 1980 (repeated in 1982), and in 1990 he completed them with a new series of 8 concerts broadcast on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday.

Peter Hurford has served on many international competition juries including Chartres, Haarlem, Bruges, Prague Linz, Nürnberg, Berlin and Dublin.

He has offered regular organ teaching at Cambridge for fifteen years, was visiting Betts Fellow in Organ Studies at Oxford University in 1992/1993, and has held visiting professorships at the Universities of Cincinnati and Western Ontario.

For two years from 1980 he was President of the Royal College of Organists, and over the same period was visiting Artist-in-Residence to Sydney Opera House. During 1995-1997 he is President of the Incorporated Association of Organists.

Peter Hurford is an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music, an Honorary Fellow both of the Royal College of Music and of the Royal School of Church Music, and holds honorary doctorales in music from the University of Bristol, and from Baldwin-Wallace College, Ohio (home of the Riemenschneider Bach Instituts).

The Queen honoured him with the OBE in 1984.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Hurford

François-Henri Houbart was born Orléans in 1952.

He studied organ and improvisation with Pierre Cochereau, Michel Chapuis and Suzanne Chaisemartin ; Pierre Lantier taught him harmony and counterpoint.

In 1978 he was awarded the second prize in the International Lyon Improvisation competition.

Since 1979 he is appointed main organist at the prestigious Madeleine in Paris, succeeding Saint-Saëns, Fauré and Jeanne Demessieux.

From 1980 to 2000 he has been teaching organ at the Orléans National Music School ; then he has been appointed teacher at the National Regional Conservatory in Rueil-Malmaison where he is taking over from Marie-Claire Alain and Susan Landale.

François-Henri Houbart is member of the organ commission advising the Ministry of Education as well as the city council of Paris ; he is also member of the artistic committee for the international organ competition “Grand Prix de Chartres”, and he is called to be juror in some of the most prestigious competitions.

François-Henri Houbart has given concerts – either recitals or concerts with orchestra – throughout Europe, but also in the USA, Canada and Japan.

Since 1979 he is playing in duo with the trumpet player Bernard Soustrot.

Playing as a soloist for Radio-France, he is participating in numerous TV transmissions in France and abroad.

Everywhere he is appreciated as one of the best interpreters of classical, romantic and contemporary repertory. But he is also considered a high-class improvisation performer.

François-Henri Houbart has made a lot of records. Some of them have been honoured with prizes such as the French President’s Prize or the “Best CD of the year” awarded by the famous New York Times.

He has also written a book about the historic Great Organ in Orléans’ Cathedral.

François-Henri Houbart is Chevalier des Arts et Lettres and the City of Paris awarded him the Vermilion Medal of Merits.

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7ois-Henri_Houbart

Born in Sofia, Yanka Hekimova began her career as a pianist and at a very early age performed recitals and orchestra concerts in her native city.

She concluded her musical studies in both piano and organ at the prestigious Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow. Settled in Paris since then, Yanka Hekimova has devoted herself exclusively to her career as an international concert artist. She has been invited to many festivals around the world. Her concerts have been widely broadcasted, both by radio’s and TV’s.

In addition to an extensive repertoire, Yanka Hekimova has written, from orchestra and piano works, many transcriptions for organ, namely by Vivaldi, Haendel, Mozart, Liszt, Wagner, Saint-Säens, Tchaikovsky, Ravel.

In 1998, in collaboration with the City of Paris, ARGOS and with sponsorship from the Fondation Hippocrène, Yanka Hekimova conceived and performed a series of animated concerts for children. These were received with such enthusiasm by the young audiences that they have since become an annual event.

Yanka Hekimova has recorded several CD’s, two of them featuring the organ of Saint Eustache (Paris) include her transcription of Mozart’s “Jupiter” Symphony as well as major original organ works. Published by Philips-Universal, the live recording of the “Symphonic Dances” by Rachmaninoff, performed by Yanka Hekimova and Jean Guillou (who wrote this transcription for two organists) has been highly acclaimed by magazines such as “Le Monde de la Musique”, Répertoire” and “Diapason”.

Yanka Hékimova has recently published the 6 Sonatas by J.S. Bach on two CD’s recorded at the Tonhalle in Zürich.

In 2006, a new CD of the renewed organ of Saint-Gabriel in Paris has been recorded, featuring works by Purcell, JS Bach, Mozart, Schumann, Franck and Vierne

http://yanka-hekimova.perso.sfr.fr/

François Houtart, born in Brussels in 1956, impassioned himself for the organ when he was young. Initiated with the organ by Paul Sprimont, after his studies with the Academies of Liege and Brussels, he obtained the higher diplomas of organ of chamber music and, recently, the licence in composition.

Both in Belgium and abroad, he took part in international academies of summer. He is prize winner of the International Contest of Organ of Freyming, France.

“Part-time lecturer” in 1987-88 of Hubert Schoonbroodt, he is currently a professor of musical and analysis writing to the Academy of Waterloo and professor of organ at Montigny-le-Tilleul. To Brussels, he conducts Schola Gregorian of the national Basilica of Sacré-Coeur and is an organist at the convent of Saint-Anthony de Padoue. He gave organ’s lessons to the International Academy of Summer of Floreffe, recently, in “Icon Arts” (contemporary music) in Romania and in Arequipa in Peru.

As organist-concert performer François Houtart occurs in Brussels since 1974, in Belgium and abroad: for various organizations and festivals.

François Houtart is a composer, he currently has 24 opus with his credit.

François HOUTART – Chartres 2007

http://www.francois-houtart.eu/

Born in Haarlem, Holland in 1979, he was educated in the UK, becoming Organ Student of St John’s College Cambridge, studying organ with Nicolas Kynaston.

He graduated with double first-class honours and subsequently spent two years as Organ Scholar of Westminster Cathedral before moving to Gloucester in 2002 where he is Assistant Director of Music at Gloucester Cathedral. He is also Musical Director of the St Cecilia Singers, and accompanist to the Gloucester Choral Society and the Three Choirs Festival Chorus. Recent solo engagements have included recitals at St Paul’s, Westminster, Edinburgh, Gloucester, Bristol, and Manchester Cathedrals, Birmingham, and appearances in France, Italy, Holland and the Konzerthaus Berlin.

He has appeared as a soloist with the Philharmonia, the BBC Philharmonic and the Orchestra of the Paris Conservatoire. He has recorded for the Hyperion, Naxos and Regent labels and has improvised live on BBC radio, on CD and at the Royal Festival Hall.

Robert Houssart was a prizewinner at the RCO Performer of the Year 2002 and at the EADS Saarbruecken Improvisation Competition in March 2003. He won First Prize in Improvisation at the St Alban’s International Organ Competition in July 2003.

His work as conductor of the St Cecilia Singers has included works by Britten, Tippett and includes collaboration with English Touring Opera, the Gloucester Three Choirs Festival and the Regency Sinfonia.

Wolfgang Hörlin was born in 1955 in the spa town of Bad Mergentheim in South-western Germany.

He was educated in the historic cathedral city of Regensburg in Bavaria which was to become the focus of his lacer professional work as academic, teacher and performer of organ music.
Under the influence of Professors Weinberger and Lehrndorfer, Herr Hörlin’s main interest have centred on liturgical music for the offices of the Catholic Church and, also, on that most difficult of musical genres, improvisation.

His accomplishment in the latter field has been marked by successive highly-placed awards at two international competitions held in Germany during 1988 and 1989 and culminated, this year, in his winning the prestigious International Improvision Competition in the great ‘organ city’ of Haarlem.

http://www.wolfgang-hoerlin.de/hoerlin.htm

Emmanuel Hocdé was born in 1970 in Château-Gontier in Mayenne. After studying the organ at the Conservatoire National de Région of Saint Maur des Fossés with Gaston Litaize, obtaining a gold medal in 1990, he joined the class of Olivier Latry. He then continued advanced studies with Louis Robilliard at the Conservatoire National de Région in Lyon where he obtained a premier Prix, at the same time attending classes at the Sorbonne (Université-Paris-IV), from where he graduated with a bachelor of Musicology.

In 1992, Emmanuel Hocdé was accepted into the Conservatoire supérieur de Musique in Paris to study with Michel Chapuis and Olivier Latry, graduating with a Premier Prix in organ and a Premier Prix in bass continuo.

In 2001, he obtained a diploma in organ improvisation from the Conservatoire national supérieur de Musique in Lyon (studying with Loïc Mallié). In the same year, he won the “André Marchal Prize” (special mention from the jury), the “Audience Favourite” Prize and the “J. Englert Marchal Prize” (special prize for playing baroc music) at the international Organ Competition in Biarritz.

In 2002, Emmanuel Hocdé won the international Organ Competition in Chartres where he was awarded the Grand Prix for interpretation, the “Audience Favourite” Prize and the Jean-Sebastian Bach Prize. He has performed in France, Europe and the USA at the invitation of the most prestigious organ festivals. Several of his concerts have been broadcast, on notably Radio Classica (Spain), Radio Slovenia and Slovakia, and France Musique. Critics have hailed him as one of the most promising organiste of his generation : “capable of restituting and communicating ail the different facets of compositions with style and sensitivity…, his light intelligent articulation made the most difficult music seem simple and radiant”. ‘Greenwich Citizen-Connecticut’ U.S.A.)

Emmanuel Hocdé is resident organist at the church of Saint Éloi in Paris (12th district) and organ professor in several music schools.

Emmanuel HOCDE – Chartres 2012

http://emmanuel.hocde.free.fr/