After starting organ with Jean Costa, Gilles Harlé worked successively with Xavier Darasse (gold medal CNR of Toulouse), Odile Bailleux (Paris) and Michael Radulescu (Vienna).

It also carries out studies and writing analysis (CNR Toulouse) Conductors (CNR of Rueil-Malmaison and Hochschule für Musik in Vienna) and harpsichord with Noëlle Spieth (CNR of Paris).

He has won international competitions in Toulouse (1981), Bruges (1982) and Innsbruck (1986).

Parallel to a concert career in France and abroad, it is expected to play with various ensembles such as La Grande Ecurie and La Chambre du Roy, La Chapelle Royale, Sagittarius, Young Soloists, Ars Nova, The Simphonie Marais .

Holder organ Billettes (Paris), he currently teaches organ at the Conservatoire de Meaux and harpsichord at the Conservatory of Bourg-la-Reine.

Ji-Youn Han was born in Seoul (Korea).

At the age of seven, she receives her first piano lessons and only three years later she is awarded the second prize at the Junior Piano Competition in Korea. In 1993, when she starts to study at the Sung-Kyul Anyang Christian University, she decides to devote herself entirely to the organ. In 1997 she obtains the ” Bachelor of Arts”.

In 2003, after further artistic studies with Zsigmond Szathmary, she obtains the diploma of the Academy of Music in Freiburg / Breisgau. Under his direction, she presently continues a special soloist training.

Since 2003, she is also studying with Christophe Mantoux at the Regional Conservatory in Strasbourg. At the same time she is taking part in organ academies and master classes with renowned organists such as Pieter van Dijk, Michael Radulescu, Jean Boyer, Olivier Latry or Ludger Lohmann. Ji-Youn Han is giving a lot of recitals as a soloist, but she is also working with various ensembles such as the Roman Choir of the Freiburg University. She has recorded concerts for the Bavarian radio and also recorded a CD.

She is appointed organist at the protestant church in Denzlingen where she is responsible for the music program of the religious worships.

In June 2004, during the International Organ Week which was taking place for the 53rd time, Ji-Youn Han has been awarded the First Prize at the Nuremberg International Organ Competition.

William Haller is the Professor of Organ and Organ Literature at West Virginia University.

He received his DMA from North Texas State University and both his Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees from the Eastman School of Music. He was an organ student of David Craighead, Donald Willing, Helen Hewitt, Finn Videro, and Robert Glasgow ; he studied harpsichord with Robert Parmentier.

He is presently the organist at the Worthington United Methodist Church in Worthington, Ohio and is the former organist for the Columbus Symphony and Columbus Symphony Chorus. Dr. Haller’s past honors include winning the National Organ Playing Competition in Fort Wayne, Indiana in 1965, and tying for second place at the International Organ Playing Competition in Chartres, France in 1974.

He is a consultant in planning specifications and construction of organs built by Schantz, Delaware, and Schlicker (in Ohio, Delaware, Texas, and West Virginia).

Since 1982, William Haller has been a fellow of the American Guild of Organists.

Naji Subhy Paul Irénée HAKIM was born in Beirut , 31 October, 1955. He studied with J. Langlais and at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris – classes of R. Boutry, J.-C. Henry, M. Bitsch, R. Falcinelli, J. Castérède and S. Nigg, where he was awarded seven first prizes.

He is a licentiate teacher in organ from Trinity College of Music in London and won ten first prizes at international organ and composition competitions.

In 1991 he was awarded the Prix André Caplet from the Académie des Beaux-Arts. At first organist of the Basilique du Sacré-Coeur, Paris from 1985 until 1993, he then became organist of l’église de la Trinité, in succession to Olivier Messiaen, from 1993 until 2008. He is professor of musical analysis at the Conservatoire National de Région de Boulogne-Billancourt, and visiting professor at the Royal Academy of Music, London. He is a graduate of the École Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications in Paris, member of the Consociatio Internationalis Musicae Sacrae in Rome and Doctor honoris causa of the Pontifical University Saint-Esprit of Kaslik, Lebanon .

In 2007, His Holiness Pope Benediktus XVI has awarded Naji Hakim The Augustae crucis insigne pro Ecclesia et Pontifice, for his excellent commitment and work for the benefit of the Church and the Holy Father.

His works include instrumental music (organ, flute, bassoon, horn, trumpet, harp, guitar, violin, piano), symphonic music (Les Noces de l’Agneau, Hymne de l’Univers, Ouverture Libanaise, Påskeblomst, Augsburger Symphonie, four organ concertos, a violin concerto, a piano concerto), and vocal music (oratorio Saul de Tarse, cantata Phèdre, Magnificat and four masses).

http://www.najihakim.com/

Professor of Organ

Project Director, Eastman-Rochester Organ Initiative

Affiliate Faculty, Musicology Department

Hans Davidsson received his Soloist Diploma from the Conservatory of Göteborg, Sweden in 1985, having studied with Hans Fagius. A special interest in early music led to three years study with Jacques van Oortmerssen at the Sweelinck Conservatorium in Amsterdam and post-graduate research on North German Baroque organ music focused on Matthias Weckmann for the University of Göteborg. In September 1991, his thesis Matthias Weckmann : the Interpretation of his Organ Music (writing, edition and recording) was defended and he became the first doctor of music performance in Sweden.

Since 1974 he has given regular recitals in the Scandinavian countries including tours to England, Germany, the Netherlands and in the USA.

In 1986, he was appointed organ teacher at the School of Music, Göteborg University and appointed organ professor in 1988. Since 1989, he was responsible for the establishment of an organ center for research in performance practice and a program of organ instruments which was built according to historical principles (such as a full-grown North-German baroque organ, which was inaugurated in 2000).

From 1995-2000, he was the director of the Göteborg Organ Art Center, GOArt, and he is currently its General Artistic and Research Director as well as the Artistic Director of the Göteborg International Organ Academy. In 2001, he was appointed Professor of organ at the Eastman School Music, Rochester, NY, USA, and Project Director of the Eastman Rochester Organ Initiative (EROI).

In 2001 he was awarded the ÅForsk research prize (the Research Foundation of the ÅF Group), one of Sweden’s most distinguished research awards, and in January 2004 he was awarded the King’s medal, the highest national award in Sweden, for “significant accomplishments in musicology and music, primarily in the fields of organ research and organ education”.

Jean Guillou expresses his creativity through multiple facets of his art.

As a performer, he has considerably pushed back the technical limits of the instrumental performance of the organ. Also a pianist, he revived the piano Sonata of Julius Reubke, a pupil of Liszt who died at the age of 24 leaving two masterpieces: this piano Sonata and the organ Sonata that Jean Guillou was alone to have recorded and to have played together in concert. He also inaugurated the Borgato Pedal Piano in 2002 in Vicenza’s Teatro Olimpico and at the Royal Opera of Versailles,.

As a composer, since his early years he has elaborated and developed a singular musical world, of a strongly individual dramatic eloquence. He thus discovered a new nature with the sound pallete of the organ, and sought to make this come alive in confrontation with the piano (Colloques n°2, 4, 5, 7) or other instruments (violin, violoncello, flute, clarinet, percussions, marimba, voice), without forgetting 7 Concertos for Organ and Orchestra. His universe can also been discovered through 3 Symphonies, 2 piano Concertos, vocal music, chamber music (in particular the Trio for 3 violoncellos, the Quartet for oboe and cords), works for piano. His works are published by Schott Musik. .

As an improviser, he gives fresh impetus to an authentically creative improvisation, liberated from the set formats of the past.

Originator of a new organologic thought, he applied his innovative ideas through the organ of Alpe d’ Huez, of the “Chant d’Oiseau” in Brussels, of the Academy of Naples, Tonhalle of Zurich, and the Concert hall of Ténériffe. His project for Ténériffe of an organ divided into 8 cases and 12 sound bodies confers a dramaturgic dimension to the instrument, playable on a console of 4 keyboards, but also, with 8 other keyboards, by 9 organists. This idea was at the origin of his work “the Revolt of the Organ”, played in the first hearing on May 12, 2007 in Landsberg then on June 19 in Saint Eustache. The ultimate development of his design leads to the “Organ with Variable Structure”, of which one will find description in his book going through all the history of the instrument and presenting his ideas on complex nature of the organ to which he wants to insufflate a greater poetic richness: “Organ, Memory and Future” (Buchet-Chastel) which is with its third edition in France, its second edition in Germany, and with its first edition in Italy.

As a writer, Jean Guillou has written many texts on music and also literary interpretations and poems. Several of his compositions exploit his own texts: “Alice in Organ Land” for organ and narrator, “Aube” for 12 voices and organ, the “Poem of the Hand” for soprano and organ, “Echo” for choir and orchestra.

As a teacher, he taught from 1970 to 2005 in Meisterkursus of Zurich, alongside Geza Anda, Nathan Milstein, Gregor Piatigorsky, Vladimir Spivakov, thus inspiring more than 300 young artists from different countries.

Philips reissued in 9 CDs his recordings made in the years 1960 to 1970, but also published 7 CDs of his compositions for organ, other instruments and voice, the complete works of Bach, a CD on the Double Borgato Piano, and one Mozart CD. Other labels (Dorian, Festivo, Pierre Vérany, Carrara) complete his discography.

2007 saw the creation of his two latest works: “The Revolt of the Organs” written for 9 organ and percussions, and the 7th Concerto premiered with the orchestra “di Padova E del Veneto” conducted by Giuseppe Marotta, in Padoue and Milan. 3 CDs, which will be released by Philips in June 2008, will present recordings made in 2008 on the organ of the Naples Academy, featuring Schumann, Liszt, and improvisations.

http://www.orgue-saint-eustache.com/Guillou_EN.htm

Georges Guillard is the appointed organist at Notre-Dame-des-Blancs-Manteaux in Paris. At the Conservatoire National de Région de Paris he is responsible for ancient music ; holding the title of Doctor of Musicology he is attached to the Sorbonne as a high level examiner in music and musicology.

Radio-France and the main festivals in Paris are regularly welcoming him for recitals and he has also given many concerts all over France and in Europe. He has also produced organ music series at Radio-France. In 2002, he has launched at Notre-Dame-des-Blancs-Manteaux a concert cycle of the complete J.S. Bach Cantatas ; this performance is supposed to take more than 20 years !

Due to his long practice on the magnificent Kern organ of the Blancs-Manteaux Church and his intensive contacts with organ builders and specialised organists, he is particularly interested in the European classical and baroque repertoire.

He has materialised his investigations in numerous publications about music, musicology, musicography and pedagogics.

Amongst his recordings one can find several worldwide premieres : especially the organ works of G..A. Homilius, the first version (the so-called Weimar Version) of the Leipzig Chorals composed by J.S. Bach, as well as the complete vocal and instrumental works by Jehan Alain ( on 3 CDs).

His discs have been medalled twice, in 1992 and 1996, when the Académie du Disque Lyrique awarded him the Orphée d’Or.

His interest in contemporary music made him also push forward certain important composers in France.

Joachim Antoni Grubich (b. 16 January 1935 in Chelmno) – Polish organist , professor of fine arts science , a university lecturer.

In the years 1956-1961 he studied at the State Higher School of Music in Krakow . Since 1964 he worked at the university since 1969 as an assistant professor. He came to the positions of professor of music academies in Krakow and Warsaw, where he also served as head of the Department of Organ and Harpsichord. In 1994-1995 he was a visiting professor of postgraduate studies in Seoul.

He made his debut at the International Organ Festival in Oliwa in 1960, beginning a long-term active concert career, appearing in Europe, Asia and North America. He played Royal Festival Hall in London, De Doelen in Rotterdam, the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, Schauspielhaus in Berlin, Victoria Hall in Geneva, the Crystal Cathedral in California and in the Cathedral in Strasbourg. He also appeared in television programs in Poland, Romania and the United States. He has recorded 26 albums. As a specialist appointed for a juror repeatedly organ competitions in the world. He took part in the work of rebuilding the organ in the church of St. Anne in Warsaw , as well as the construction of new bodies for the Philharmonic and the church. Peter and Paul as part of the parish of St. Barbara.

Vincent GRAPPY is titular organist of the Cathedral of Blois. He has completed organ studies with Francois-Henri Houbart, Marie-Claire Alain and Louis Robilliard.
Also a harpsichordist, he was a pupil of Olivier Baumont and of Bob van Asperen.

He is laureate of international organ competitions of the City of Paris (2002) and of Chartres (2004), awards that mark a transition to the professional world and offer the opportunity to many concerts in France and abroad.

Eclectic musician, he grows an organ repertory as wide as possible and a diligent practice of chamber music and choir accompaniment.

Vincent Grappy also holds the Certificate of Aptitude as professor of organ and he is artistic director of chamber music competition “Musique au Centre”.

Vincent GRAPPY – Chartres 2004

http://vincent.grappy.free.fr/