Olivier Latry

Standing at the vanguard of France's emerging organists, Olivier Latry combines deep immersion in Parisian instrumental traditions with an inventive outlook that draws fresh listeners, while also earning recognition as a leading teacher. Born on February 22, 1962, in Boulogne-sur-Mer along the English Channel in northernmost France, he gave one of his earliest recitals at his brother's wedding, when an accidental arm movement struck the keys and produced a jarring dissonance. His path nevertheless advanced, and in 1978 he relocated to the Paris suburbs for lessons with the renowned blind organist Gaston Litaize at the St. Maur-des-Fossés Conservatory, simultaneously pursuing composition studies under Jean-Claude Raynaud. Appointed professor of organ at the Catholic Institute of Paris in 1983, he went on to teach at the Academy of Rheims before succeeding Litaize at St. Maur-des-Fossés in 1990; five years later he joined the faculty of the Academy of Paris. These academic roles carried equal weight with his work as a performer and recording artist. Since 1985 he has served as one of four titulaires des grands orgues at Notre-Dame cathedral, a post he continues to hold into the early 2020s. His first major-label project, a six-CD Deutsche Grammophon survey of Messiaen's complete organ works captured at Notre-Dame, appeared in 2002, followed by recordings of Franck and Bach. His own Salve regina, composed in 2007 from improvisations on the medieval hymn, received its premiere and recording at the same cathedral. Renowned for improvisation within the longstanding French organ lineage, Latry ranks among the rare contemporary players to gain broad American followings; his initial U.S. tour took place in 1986, and he has since performed in more than forty countries, including a return engagement during the 2022-2023 season. Although his commercial discs often spotlight the powerful instruments of Paris, he has also issued conceptually adventurous projects featuring contemporary scores, music for mechanical organ, and, in 2017, the transcription album Voyages drawn from orchestral and piano repertoire. That release restored a once-common late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century practice that had nearly vanished, achieving notable commercial success. He holds the organ professorship at the Conservatoire de Paris and, in 2022, collaborated with the Phil Blech Wien wind ensemble on the Deutsche Grammophon album Live from Vienna.