André Isoir

André Isoir (born July 20, 1935) is a French classical musician known primarily as an organist. He is also a composer.

André Isoir was born in Saint-Dizier. At the École César-Franck (César Franck School) he was a student of Édouard Souberbielle (organ) and Germaine Mounier (piano). At the Conservatoire de Paris (Paris Conservatory), he studied with Rolande Falcinelli and took first prize in both organ and improvisation in 1960. He won several international organ competitions including the St Albans International Organ Festival in 1965, and three years later in Haarlem, Netherlands he won the Prix du Challenge (Challenge Prize), the first French organist to achieve this distinction in the history of the competition. In 1974 Isoir was given the prize in composition by the Amis de l'Orgue (Friends of the Organ) for his "Variations sur un psaume Huguenot" (Variations on a Huguenot Psalm).

Isoir has made many recordings, particularly on the Calliope label. As of 2006, there were 36 of his recordings in the catalog [http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/Drilldown?&name_id=45613&name_role=2] . They have received numerous awards. Isoir has made over 20 compact discs of the organ works of JS Bach. Isoir's recordings of the music of César Franck on the organ of the cathedral at Luçon have also been particularly praised. He has not neglected more obscure but very worthy composers. He recorded the complete organ output of Nicolas de Grigny who died in 1703 at only 31, but not before "epitomizing the French classical organ tradition...which was) stylistically more akin to harpsichord than to organ practice at the time." [http://www.classicstoday.com/review.asp?ReviewNum=7171]

André Isoir is the titular organist at the abbatial church of Saint-Germain-des-Prés in Paris.

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* [http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9_Isoir Entry to André Isoir in the French Wikipedia] , translated Nov. 18, 2006