Aristide Cavaillé-Coll was a French organ builder. He has the reputation of being the most distinguished organ builder of the 19th century. He pioneered innovations in the art and science of organ building that permeated the profession and influenced the course of organ building, composing and improvising through the early 20th century.
John Gavin Scott was an English organist and choirmaster who reached the highest levels of his profession on both sides of the Atlantic. He directed the Choir of St Paul's Cathedral in London from 1990 to 2004. He then directed the Choir of Men and Boys of Saint Thomas Church on Fifth Avenue in New York City until his death at age 59. Whilst training countless young musicians, he maintained an active career as an international concert performer and recording artist, and was acclaimed as "the premier English organist of his generation".
Jeanne Marie-Madeleine Demessieux was a French organist, pianist, composer, and teacher. She was the chief organist at Saint-Esprit for 29 years and at La Madeleine in Paris starting in 1962. She performed internationally as a concert organist and was the first female organist to sign a record contract. She went on to record many organ works, including her own compositions.
Gerre Edward Hancock was an American organist, improviser, and composer. Hancock was Professor of Organ and Sacred Music at the University of Texas at Austin. He died of cardiac arrest in Austin, Texas, on Saturday, January 21, 2012.
St. Nicholas Church is one of the oldest and most prominent landmarks in Ghent, Belgium. Begun in the early 13th century as a replacement for an earlier Romanesque church, construction continued through the rest of the century in the local Scheldt Gothic style. Typical of this style is the use of blue-gray stone from the Tournai area, the single large tower above the crossing, and the slender turrets at the building's corners.
Bernardus Franciscus van Oosten is a Dutch organist, pedagogue and author. He is titular organist of the Grote Kerk in his hometown of The Hague and is an organ professor at Rotterdam Conservatoire.
François Daniel Roth is a French organist, composer, musicologist, and pedagogue. He was titular organist of the Church of Saint-Sulpice, Paris, from 1985 to 2023, and is currently the emeritus titular organist.
Jeremy Daniell Filsell is an English pianist, organist and composer who currently serves as director of music at Saint Thomas Church, New York City.
Kalevi Ilmari Kiviniemi was a Finnish concert organist. He gave more than 2,000 concerts, and his discography includes nearly 200 titles, many of them featuring significant and unique organs in the US, Japan, the Philippines, Australia, Italy, France, Switzerland and Germany. Kiviniemi was also regarded as a distinguished improviser. He was the first to record the complete organ works by Jean Sibelius.
The organ of Chester Cathedral is the major source of instrumental music at the cathedral, being played for daily services and accompanying the choir, as well as being used for concerts and recitals. The choral tradition at Chester is 900 years old, dating from the foundation of the Bendedictine monastery.
Julia Brown is a Brazilian classical organist.
Johann Vexo is a French organist. He is the organist for both the choir organ at Notre Dame de Paris and the great organ of Nancy Cathedral.
The great organ of the cathedral of Nancy was begun in 1756. It is placed on a gallery above the central doorway of the Notre-Dame-de-l'Annonciation cathedral in Nancy.
Diane Meredith Belcher is an American concert organist, teacher, and church musician. She has given a large number of solo recitals throughout the United States and abroad, is a teacher, and has served as Director of Music at Bach Vespers/Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in New York City, Lecturer in Music Theory and Organ at Dartmouth College, in Hanover, New Hampshire, Music Director at Saint Thomas Episcopal Church, Hanover, Co-Organist/Choirmaster at Saint Mark's Episcopal Church in Philadelphia, and head of the Organ Division at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey.
Pierre-Marie François Pincemaille was a French organist, improviser, and pedagogue. He was known for his organ improvisations, both in concert and on CD and for his recordings of Charles-Marie Widor's complete organ symphonies played on organs built by Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, as well as his recordings of the complete organ works of Maurice Duruflé and César Franck, and organ works of Pierre Cochereau and Louis Vierne in particular.
Stephen J. Tharp is an American organist and composer.
Michał Szostak, is an international concert organist, organologist and musicologist, manager, university professor and scientific researcher. A Doctor habilitated in management and a Doctor of Music Arts in organ performance. He studied organ performance at the Fryderyk Chopin Music University in Warsaw under Professor Andrzej Chorosiński and organ improvisation at the Pontificio Istituto Ambrosiano di Musica Sacra in Milan under Maestro Davide Paleari as well as management and marketing at Leon Koźmiński Academy in Warsaw. As the first Pole, he received the certificate of The Royal College of Organists. He is a member of The American Guild of Organists, The Organ Historical Society, and the Polisch Chapter of the Humanistic Management Network.
Catharine Pearl Crozier was a leading American concert organist and teacher.
Hans-Dieter Karras is a German church musician, composer and organist.
Johann Georg Gerhard Schmitt, in French Jean-Georges Gérard Schmitt, was a Paris-based composer and organist, originally from the Prussian Lower Rhine province. He was only 14 when he took over as organist at Trier Cathedral: the position had fallen vacant three years earlier through the early death of the previous incumbent, his father.
