Maurice Clerc (born 1946) is a French classical

organist An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ. An organist may play solo organ works, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumental soloists. In addition, an organist may accompany congregational h ...

Life

Born in Lyon, Clerc studied at the

École normale de musique de Paris The École Normale de Musique de Paris "Alfred Cortot" (ENMP) is a leading conservatoire located in Paris, Île-de-France, France. At the time of the school's foundation in 1919 by Auguste Mangeot, Alfred Cortot. The term ''école normale'' (Eng ...

with Suzanne Chaisemartin, then at the

Conservatoire de Paris The Conservatoire de Paris (), also known as the Paris Conservatory, is a college of music and dance founded in 1795. Officially known as the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (CNSMDP), it is situated in the avenue ...

where he obtained, in 1975, a first prize for organ in

Rolande Falcinelli Rolande Roberte Ginabat-Falcinelli (18 February 1920 – 11 June 2006) was a French organist, pianist, composer, and music educator. Biography Rolande Falcinelli (born Ginabat), the grandniece of Marcel Falcinelli and granddaughter of Louis N ...

's class. While continuing this path in interpretation with

Gaston Litaize Gaston Gilbert Litaize (11 August 1909 - 5 August 1991) was a French organist and composer. Considered one of the 20th century masters of the French organ, he toured, recorded, worked at churches, and taught students in and around Paris. Blind ...

, he frequented, for several years, the lessons of musical improvisation by

Pierre Cochereau Pierre Eugène Charles Cochereau (9 July 1924 – 6 March 1984) was a French organist, improviser, composer, and pedagogue. Cochereau was titular organist of the cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris from 1955 to his death in 1984 and was responsibl ...

at the International Academy of Nice. He won the improvisation prize at the international competition in Lyon in 1977. Clerc has given approximately 1000 recitals in more than twenty-three countries, including 24 tours in North America (United States and Canada). Travelling four continents for thirty years, he has performed in prestigious venues including the cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris, the St. Patrick's Cathedral, the

Lübeck Cathedral Lübeck Cathedral (german: Dom zu Lübeck, or colloquially ''Lübecker Dom'') is a large brick-built Lutheran cathedral in Lübeck, Germany and part of the Lübeck World Heritage Site. It was started in 1173 by Henry the Lion as a cathedral for ...

, the St Mark's Basilica in Venise, the

Saint Joseph's Oratory Saint Joseph's Oratory of Mount Royal (french: Oratoire Saint-Joseph du Mont-Royal) is a Roman Catholic minor basilica and national shrine located at 3800 Queen Mary Road in the Côte-des-Neiges neighborhood on Mount Royal's Westmount Summit in ...

of Montréal, the

St Paul's Cathedral, Melbourne St Paul's Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in Melbourne, Australia. It is the cathedral church of the Diocese of Melbourne and the seat of the Archbishop of Melbourne, who is also the metropolitan archbishop of the Province of Victoria. ...

, the

NHK , also known as NHK, is a Japanese public broadcaster. NHK, which has always been known by this romanized initialism in Japanese, is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee. NHK operates two terrestr ...

auditorium in Tokyo and the Cultural Center of Hong Kong. In 1987, he was invited to give two of the opening concerts of the

Flentrop Flentrop is a Dutch company based in Zaandam that builds and restores organs. History It was established in 1903 by Hendrik Wicher Flentrop (1866 -1950) from Koog aan de Zaan. Hendrik, originally a house painter by trade, was an organist at the ...

great organ in the new auditorium in

Taipei Taipei (), officially Taipei City, is the capital and a special municipality of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Located in Northern Taiwan, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City that sits about southwest of the ...

. In 1999, he went to Seoul for the organists convention. This international career has led him to perform in renowned festivals such as

Bruges Bruges ( , nl, Brugge ) is the capital and largest city of the province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium, in the northwest of the country, and the sixth-largest city of the country by population. The area of the whole city a ...

Ravenna Ravenna ( , , also ; rgn, Ravèna) is the capital city of the Province of Ravenna, in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy. It was the capital city of the Western Roman Empire from 408 until its collapse in 476. It then served as the ca ...

, Madrid,

Morelia Morelia (; from 1545 to 1828 known as Valladolid) is a city and municipal seat of the municipality of Morelia in the north-central part of the state of Michoacán in central Mexico. The city is in the Guayangareo Valley and is the capital and lar ...

Saint-Eustache, Paris The Church of St. Eustache, Paris (french: église Saint-Eustache) is a church in the 1st arrondissement of Paris. The present building was built between 1532 and 1632. Situated near the site of Paris' medieval marketplace ( Les Halles) and rue ...

, Milstatt, Frankfurt, Budapest,

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

, New-Zealand, Buenos Aires and Montevideo. Appointed titular organist of the Saint-Bénigne cathedral of Dijon in 1972, he was for thirty-three years a professor at the and for twenty years a lecturer at the university. Clerc has recorded numerous disks devoted to

Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the ''Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard wor ...

and the German Baroque masters, but considered as one of the specialists in French music of the 19th-20th centuries, he has worked on engraving major works by Franck, Vierne, Dupré, Fleury, Langlais and more recently Cochereau.

References

External links

Official website

Jean Philippe Rameau: Ouverture des Indes Galantes
by Maurice Clerc on YouTube {{DEFAULTSORT:Clerc, Maurice 1946 births Living people Musicians from Lyon French classical organists French male organists Cathedral organists Conservatoire de Paris alumni École Normale de Musique de Paris alumni French music educators 21st-century organists 21st-century French male musicians Male classical organists