The Hope College Department of Music and the Holland Area Chapter of the American Guild of Organists will present Maurice Duruflé's pupil Frédéric Blanc on Monday, Oct. 21 at 7:30 p.m. in the Nykerk oragn studio.
The Hope College Department of Music and the Holland Area Chapter of the American Guild of Organists will present Maurice Duruflé's pupil Frédéric Blanc on Monday, Oct. 21 at 7:30 p.m. in the Nykerk oragn studio.
M. Blanc will speak about the organ music of Maurrice Duruflé, whose magnificent Requiem was performed in Dimnent by the College Choirs last spring semester under the director Brad Richmond.
Born in 1967, M. Blanc, decided to devote himself entirely to music after one year of law studies. He attended the Academies of Bordeaux where he obtained many awards, including awards in organ and theory. Further studies in organ took place under the tutelage of Pierre Cogen, André Fleury, Marie-Claire Alain and, from 1991, Marie-Madeleine Duruflé, who came to regard him as her protégé and her successor in the interpretation of her husband?s compositions. From 1987-1995 he was assistant organist at St. Sernin de Toulouse.
A finalist of the International Improvisation Competition of Strasbourg in 1989, M. Blanc has also been a prize-winner of several other international improvisation competitions including Nuremberg (1996) and 2nd prize in the Grand Prix de Chartres. In 1997, he was awarded the Grand Prize of the City of Paris International Competition. M. Blanc maintains an active career as a concert artist throughout Europe and has made several concert tours in the United States.
He is a member of the Organ Commission of the City of Paris and the Organ Commission of the French Ministry of Culture, as well as being the Music Director of the "Association de Maurice et Marie-Madeleine Duruflé". He has recorded several CDs devoted to improvisation and organ literature that have been greeted enthusiastically by international critics claiming him to be one of the most brilliant organists and improvisers of the young French school of organ in the tradition of Dupré, Duruflé and Cochereau. He is the author of a study devoted to André Fleury and of several improvisation transcriptions of the late Pierre Cochereau, organist of Notre-Dame of Paris. Since 1999, M. Blanc has been titular organist of the Cavaillé-Coll organ at Notre-Dame d?Auteuil in Paris, one of the most beautiful organs of that builder.