Jean Guillou

This is from Wikipedia.org Jean Victor Arthur Guillou (born April 18, 1930 in Angers) is a French composer, organist, pianist, and pedagogue. Following autodidactic studies in piano and organ performance, Guillou became organist at the church St. Serge in Angers at age 12. From 1945-1955, he studied at the Paris Conservatoire under Marcel Dupré, Maurice Duruflé, and Olivier Messiaen. In 1955, he accepted a position as professor of organ and composition at the Institute of Sacred Music in Lisbon. For health reasons, he left Lisbon in 1958 and moved to Berlin, where he lived for the following five years. In 1963, Guillou was appointed as titular organist at l'Église Saint-Eustache in Paris. He has a worldwide reputation as a brilliant concert organist and improviser. Additionally he often performs as pianist; for example, he gave the English and French premieres of Julius Reubke's long-forgotten piano sonata. Guillou's engagement in organ building lead to collaborations with several organ builders and the construction or renovation of instruments in l'Alpe d'Huez, the Chant d'Oiseau church in Brussels, the Tonhalle in Zurich, the Conservatory in Naples, St. Eustache (as mentioned above), and, most recently, the Auditorio de Tenerife in Santa Cruz (Canary Islands). As a composer, he has written numerous works for organ, as well as chamber music, orchestral music, and transcriptions for organ. In addition, Guillou has issued numerous organ recordings, including the complete organ works of Johann Sebastian Bach and César Franck, numerous improvisations (e.g., Visions cosmiques (1969), or Jeux d'orgue (1970)),as well as most of his own organ compositions, on a series of 7 CDs for the Philips label. From 1970-2005, Guillou taught organ performance and improvisation at the annual Züricher Meisterkurse. Since 2007, these masterclasses are held at St. Eustache in Paris, France. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.