WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Olivier Latry, the organist of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris and the Conservatoire de Paris, will be performing at the North Carolina School of the Arts (NCSA) as part of the Fisk Organ Thirtieth Anniversary celebration. The performance will take place on Friday, February 8 at 7:30 p.m. in Crawford Hall on the NCSA campus. Tickets are $12 for adults and $10 for seniors and students and are available through the NCSA Web site www.ncarts.edu or through the NCSA box office (336) 721-1945.

The Fisk Organ Thirtieth Anniversary celebration is a year-long series of events honoring the historic installation of the Sarah Graham Kenan Memorial Organ designed by Charles Fisk. The celebration includes five concerts by guests, faculty and students of the North Carolina School of the Arts.

On February 8, Latry will be performing works by Jean-Adam Guilain, Claude-Bénigne Balbastre, Louis-Claude Daquin, Johann-Sebastian Bach, Maurice Duruflé, Jehan Alain, and Marcel Dupré. In addition, he will perform an improvisational piece.

Latry is one of the world’s most distinguished organists, not only in France, but also in the international community. He was born in Boulogne-sur-Mer, France in 1962, and began his study of piano at the age of 7, and his study of the organ at age 12; he later attended the Academy of Music at St. Maur-des-Fossés, studying organ with Gaston Litaize. From 1981-1985 Olivier Latry was titular organist of Meaux Cathedral and at age 23 he won a competition to become one of the three titular organists of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris. From 1990-1995 he taught organ at the Academy of Music at St. Maur-des-Fossés, where he succeeded his teacher, Gaston Litaize. Since 1995 he has taught at the Paris Conservatory, where he has succeeded Michel Chapuis. In addition to concerts and teaching, Mr. Latry has made his mark through recordings on the BNL label in France, which include music of Bach, the complete organ works of Maurice Duruflé, Louis Vierne’s Symphonies 2 & 3, Widor’s Symphonies 5 and 6, and a recording of works by Litaize. Most recently he has recorded with Deutsche Grammophon the complete organ works of Olivier Messiaen, a recording of transcriptions for the organ entitled “Midnight at Notre-Dame” and a recording entitled “In Spiritum” devoted to the organ works of César Franck.  

Not wishing to specialize in a particular repertoire, Olivier Latry would like to be an ambassador of seventeenth to twenty-first century French organ music, hence his equal devotion to the art of improvisation.  Today he is counted among the most noted “improvisateurs” in the exceptional French tradition from Charles Tournemire to Pierre Cochereau. 

Latry has performed in more than forty countries on five continents, appearing most often in the United States. He made his first American tour during the fall of 1986, and has subsequently made annual tours to the U.S., playing recitals in major cities coast to coast, as well as in cities throughout Canada.  In 2005 Mr. Latry played a solo recital at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and opened the new Rieger organ at Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church in Pennsylvania. In 2006 he was the featured soloist for the opening of the new Dobson organ at Verizon Hall in Philadelphia where he performed for three sold out audiences in gala concerts with the Philadelphia Orchestra under the direction of Christoph Eschenbach. Latry and his wife Marie-Therese have three children and live in a little village outside Paris.

The North Carolina School of the Arts, located in Winston-Salem (“The City of the Arts”), was the first state-supported, residential school of its kind in the nation. Established by the N.C. General Assembly in 1963, NCSA opened in Winston-Salem in 1965 and became part of the University of North Carolina system in 1972. More than 1,100 students from middle school through graduate school train for careers in the arts in five professional schools: Dance, Design and Production (including a Visual Arts Program), Drama, Filmmaking, and Music. The North Carolina School of the Arts is the state’s only public arts conservatory, dedicated entirely to the professional training of talented students in the performing, visual and moving image arts. The chancellor, deans, and faculty work with students in a residential setting to create an educational community that is intimate, demanding, and performance-centered. Learning is enriched by access to an academic program responsive to a conservatory curriculum. Founded to be both an educational institution and a resource enhancing the cultural life of the state of North Carolina and the Southeast, NCSA offers numerous public performances, on- and off-campus, as well as community education in the arts.

School of the Arts alumni have performed in or behind the scenes of Broadway shows, film, television and regional theatre, and are members of the world’s finest symphony orchestras and opera and dance companies. They have won or been nominated for all of the major awards in the entertainment industry, including Tony, Oscar, Emmy, Grammy and others.

 

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