GERGELY Ferenc (Budapest, September 1914 -10 ; Budapest, 1998 – 18 March).

He studied organ between 1933 and 1940 at the Budapest Academy of Music with Zalánfy Aladárné, piano with Géza Wehner, composition with Albert Siklos.
1934 music teacher in 1942, he was a pupil of Arthur Dew, Lajos Bardos and Adam Eugene as well as Raminnál Günther in Leipzig and Olivier Messiaen in Paris.
Church organist, conductor until 1948. Teacher of Zenedében and high school Béla Bartók, then at the Academy of Music. International concert.
Member of the Jury Grand Prix de Chartres in 1972.
Recognized by several awards (Liszt Prize in 1994, Kossuth Prize in 1989).
He was appointed by Pope John Paul II Knight of the Order of St. Gregory.
Died in 1998.

Vincent Genvrin, born in 1965. He studied the organ with Jean Boyer at Conservatoire National de Région de Lille, and also with Odille Bailleux and later with Xavier Darasse at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Lyon, where he obtained the ‘diplôme national d’études supérieures musicales’.

He continued studies in Belgium with Bernard Foccroulle and Jean Ferrard, for whom he was assistant between 1986 and 1988 at the Conservatoire Royal de Liège.

Genvrin is the organ professor at the Conservatoire de Laon and at the Institut Catholique de Paris.

He is both titular organist at Cathédral de Soissons and église Saint-Nicolas-les-Champs in Paris.

Directeur de la musique d’église, Bonn (Entre Novembre 1976 et Octobre 1986).
Organiste de la Kreuzkirche, Bonn.
Hans Geffert a fondé un orchestre à cordes, qui accompagnait cantates et oratorios avec le violoniste Heinrich Schiffer.

Membre du Jury Grand Prix de Chartres 1971.

Born in Würzburg (Germany), Heidi Emmert began his organ studies at the age of 11 years. She was a student of Prof. Günther Kaunzinger at the Music Conservatory of Würzburg and Prof. Gerhard Weinberger at the Conservatory of Music of Detmold (Germany) where in 1990, she obtained her organ degree (Konzert-examination) with the highest distinction (“summa cum moor”), and graduated from “Kirchenmusik” ( church musician degree). Then she worked with Marie-Claire Alain at the Conservatoire de Rueil-Malmaison (France).

Heidi Emmert has won numerous national and international competitions:

– 1990 : 1st Prize (Grand Prix Interpretation) of the International Organ Competition of Chartres (France) ; 3rd Calgary International Organ Competition Award (Canada) ; 1 National Prize of the Organ “Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy” in Berlin (Germany).

– 1989 : 1st Prize at the 1st European Organ Competition in Ljubljana (Yugoslavia) ; 3rd Prize of the International Organ Competition of the Prague Spring International Music Festival (Czechoslovakia).

– 1987 : 2nd Prize of the Munich International Organ Competition (RFA), the jury did not award 1st prize ; 1 Award and the Audience Award from the International Competition Nuremberg (Germany).

Heidi Emmert gave his first organ recital at the age of 14. Since then, she has performed regularly in Germany and abroad : Berlin Philharmonic, “Royal Festival Hall” in London, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Yugoslavia, USA, Canada. She is invited throughout France, Finland (Finlandis Hall, Helsinki Italy, Austria, England, Czechoslovakia (Prague), USSR at the Cathedral of Riga and Leningrad Philharmonic, etc…

She has made numerous recordings for radio and television, especially in Germany but also in France, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Canada and the United States.

http://www.hfkm-regensburg.de/hochschule/leitung/dozenten/hauptamtliche-dozenten/emmert-heidi/

The well-known German organist and conductor, Hans Gebhard, has been working together with many of the past’s and today’s most popular names in classical music, including legendary tenor Fritz Wunderlich and conductor Klaus Tennstedt.

Hans Gebhard was the Director of Music at the St. Nikolai Church in Kiel, Germany from 1959 to 1989, and has been Professor of Organ and Choirs at the College of Music in Lübeck, Germany since 1977. Throughout his career, he has been given concerts as a conductor of orchestras and choirs as well as an organist at famous venues across Europe and Northern America.

In addition to his concert career, Hans Gebhard is a sought-after teacher of master-classes at music festivals and universities. Locations of his USA classes included Brigham Young University and the San Anselmo Organ Festival. Hans Gebhard is also a well-established author and editor of music reference and theory books.

Hans Gebhard recorded only one work of J.S. Bach : the Markus-Passion BWV 247 with Estonians singers in a live recording of a concert at Tallinn Cathedral Estonia, 1996. Apart from this only radio recordings exist, by NDR (Norddeutscher Rundfunk) : Christmas Oratorio 1-3 (BWV 248), St. John’s Passion (BWV 245).

Pierre Gazin, Parisian by birth, took his first organ lessons with his mother who was organist for 52 years in Paris and Nancy. Jean Langlais and Pierre Cochereau, who often invited him to Notre-Dame de Paris, Pierre Gazin was the great French organ school. Among the last student of Marcel Dupré and Rolande Falcinelli at the National Conservatory of Music in Paris he obtained in 1957 the first prize for organ and improvisation unanimously at the National Conservatory of Music in Paris.

Before being appointed professor of organ at the Conservatoire de Metz in 1960, he had married in Paris the Hungarian soprano Maria Posa. The career of Pierre Gazin oscillated between his position holder at The Invalides church, he shared with Bernard Gavoty, many concerts both in Paris and in the provinces or abroad, and ongoing organ and writing that it has provided for nearly 40 years at the Conservatory of Metz. Countless students who have brought honor to his teaching and we collected the best of this man courteous, elegant, professor at the proverbial patience human and humanist.

In 1961, Pierre Gazin had recorded his first album with Maurice André in St Eustache. In 1969 he recorded the Concerto for Organ by Francis Poulenc with the Radio Chamber Orchestra and in 1972 he created the Concerto in G minor by Jean Langlais with the same orchestra. He founded in 1975 the “Musical Hours” Invalides.

Extraordinary improviser, he was a strong advocate of the symphonic organ music of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He was often invited to perform on the different instruments of the city of Metz, alone or in duo with his wife. Discreet man, few knew his career. He was the organist in the films “Austerlitz” Abel Gance and “It’s midnight Dr. Schweitzer.”

March 21, 1998, Pierre GAZIN left us.

Jean Galard is titular organist at Beauvais Cathedral and at Saint-Medard Church in Paris.

He was first prize winner of the Lyon International Improvisation Competition, the Maurice Duruflé Improvisation Competition, and was awarded the first organ prize and certificats of organology of the Paris Music Conservatory.

Jean Galard is a member of the Paris Organ Commission and a professor at the conservatories of Paris and Beauvais.

An international concertist he has performed in more than 25 countries as well as with the Paris Orchestra and the Opera Bastille Orchestra. He has participated in numerous recordings.

Jean Galard is a composer whose works were performed for the first time at Saint-Médard Church, Saint-Roch Church, and Beauvais Cathedral.

Elisa Freixo has one of the most important carriers in the country at present.

After finishing her studies in Brazil, she lived for four years in Europe, where she studied organ and harpsichord. She attended the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hamburg, the Schola Cantorum in Paris, and the Conservatoire de Musique in Rueil Malmaison, France.

Back to Brazil since 1982, she has presented herself here and abroad in organ, harpsichord, and pianoforte concerts, while developing a parallel career as a chamber musician. Living in Mariana, she is responsible for the series of concerts played on the Arp Schnitger organ, installed in the city’s Cathedral.

Since 1985, she has recorded 12 LPs and CDs, of which six are independt production, dedicated to the work of J. S. Bach, Mendelsohn, romantic authors, and a series of 3 volumes dedicated to the Mariana organ.

Her first CD, for the French label Auvidis-Valois, dedicated to the 18th century Spanish repertoire, received the Grand Prix du Disque da Nouvelle Academie Française, one of the highest honors of the music market and the first time awarded to a Brazilian artist.

Born in 1982, he began his musical studies at the CNR in Versailles, then at the CNR Superior in Paris where he obtained several diplomas : final diploma in Solfege and Improvisation ; First Prize in Orchestration.

He is currently studying at the same conservatory with courses in performance, harmony, counterpoint, analysis and organology with Marie-Louise Langlais, Françoise Levechin, Alain Louvier, Jean-Pierre Vignon. He is also studying improvisation with Thierry Escaich and Frédéric Blanc.

Jean-Charles Gandrille (Robin) has won various distinctions in the following competitions : “Marcel Dupré” in Chartres (virtuosity, unanimous ; and the Prize of the City of Chartres) ; UFAM in Paris (First Prize : superior degree).

In 2000 he won the Second Prize in Improvisation and the Audience Prize at the Chartres International Organ Competition “Grand Prix de Chartres”. Other honors include obtaining an honorable mention in the General High School Competition in music, and being finalist in the Boëllmann-Gigout competition in improvisation in Strasbourg.

Jean-Charles GANDRILLE – Chartres 2007

http://www.jeancharlesgandrille.com/

Born in Freiberg in 1980, David Franke started playing the piano at the age of 5. When he was 13 years old, he decided to dedicate himself to the organ. First he studied with Dietrich Wagler, appointed organist at Freiberg cathedral. In 2000, he obtained the Second Prize in the Germon national competition « Jugend Musiziert », as well as the First Prize and the Special Award of the Jury in improvisation.

In parallel, David Franke decided to diversify his studies at the Danish Royal Academy of Music in Copenhagen under the direction of Katrine Bryndorf and Sôren Christian Vestergaard. Several master-classes with Lorenzo Ghielmi, Hans-Ola Ericsson, Jean-Pierre Leguay, Pierre Pincemaille, David Briggs and others, have enriched his competences.

In 2007 David Franke has given concerts at the Bachfest in Freiberg, but also in other cathedrals such as Bremen, Brandenburg…

In 2008 he was awarded the « Grand prix d’improvisation » at the International Organ competition in Chartres.

David FRANKE – Chartres 2008