Ádám TABAJDI had his first experience with organ thanks to Dr. Dezső Karasszon. He attended Kodály Zoltán Vocational School of Music, first the organ faculty at Dániel Sárosi, then the piano faculty at Béla Grünwald.

In 2009, he was awarded Gold rating at the 3rd International Young Organist’s Meeting  in Szeged, Hungary. From 2011, he continued his studies at Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music under the direction of László Fassang, István Ruppert, János Pálúr and Balázs Szabó.
During his university years, he made several foreign study tours in France and Germany, where he got to know the major historic organs. He spent 6 years altogether as a cantor at the Füredi úti Reformed Congregation in Debrecen and was also member of the New Liszt Ferenc Chamber Choir for 2 years.

In 2016, he was addmitted to the Conservatoire of Paris at the organ faculty, where he is under the guidance of professor Olivier Latry and Michel Bouvard now. During his studies in Paris, he gave concerts regulary in the Royal Chapel of Versaille, in the Church of Saint-Séverin and Saint-Jean Bosco and in the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris. For 2017-2018, he was elected the principal intern of the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris. He was awarded the Fisher Annie Musical Scholarship in 2018.
Besides organ he plays the piano. He has given regular solo and chamber concerts since 2008. In his concerts, he enjoys talking to the audience about the pieces performed. He is a determined interpreter of Hungarian and international contemporary music.

Stephen THARP, hailed as “the organist for the connoisseur” (organ – Journal für die Orgel, Germany), “the thinking person’s performer” (Het Orgel), “every bit the equal of any organist” (The American Organist magazine) and “the consummate creative artist” (Michael Barone, Pipedreams), is recognized as one of the great concert organists of our age.
Having played more than 1400 concerts across 50 tours worldwide, Stephen Tharp has built one of the most well-respected international careers in the world, earning him the reputation as the most traveled concert organist of his generation. He is listed in Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who in the World, and has been given the 2011 International Performer of the Year Award by the New York City chapter of the American Guild of Organists. In May 2015, he was given the Paul Creston Award which recognizes artistic excellence by a significant figure in church music and the performing arts.

His list of performances since 1987 includes such distinguished venues as St. Bavo, Haarlem; St. Eustache, Paris; Ste. Croix, Bordeaux; The Hong Kong Cultural Centre; the Town Halls of Sydney and Adelaide, Australia; Tchaikovsky Hall, Moscow; the Tonhalle, Zürich; the Duomo, Milano, Italy; the cathedrals in Berlin, Köln, München, Münster, Passau und Monaco, and the Gewandhaus, Leipzig, Germany; the Frauenkirche, Dresden; Igreja da Lapa, Porto, Mosteiro dos Jerónimos, Lissabon; Antwerp Cathedral, Belgium; Dvorak Hall, Prague; the Hallgrimskirkja, Reykjavik, Iceland; The Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, Dallas; Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles; The Kimmel Center, Philadelphia; The Riverside Church, New York City; Rice University, Houston; Spivey Hall, Atlanta; and Severance Hall, Cleveland.
He has given master classes at Yale University; Westminster Choir College; the Cleveland Institute of Music, Bethel University (St. Paul, MN), Rice University (Houston, TX); the Hochschulen für Musik in Stuttgart, Trossingen and Bochum (Germany); and for chapters of the American Guild of Organists. He has also adjudicated for competitions at the Juilliard School and Northwestern University.

Stephen Tharp remains an important champion of new organ music, and continues to commission and premiere numerous compositions for the instrument. The first such piece was Jean Guillou’s symphonic poem Instants, Op. 57, which Tharp premiered at King’s College, Cambridge, England in February 1998. Works dedicated to him include George Baker’s ‘Danse Diabolique‘ (2016) and Variations on “Rouen” (2010); David Briggs’ ‘Toccata Labyrinth‘ (2006); Samuel Adler’s ‘Sonata‘ (2005); Eugenio Fagiani’s ‘Psalm 100‘ (2009) and ‘Stèle‘ (2003); Thierry Escaich’s ‘Trois Poèmes‘ (2002); Philip Moore’s ‘Sinfonietta‘ (2001); Anthony Newman’s ‘Tombeau d’Igor Stravinsky‘ (2000), ‘Toccata and Fuga Sinfonica on BACH‘ (1999) and the ‘Second Symphony‘ (1992); Martha Sullivan’s ‘Slingshot Shivaree for Organ and Percussion‘ (1999); and Morgan Simmons ‘Exercitatio Fantastica‘ (1997).
Himself a composer, Tharp was commissioned by Cologne Cathedral, Germany to compose for Easter Sunday, 2006 his ‘Easter Fanfares‘ for the inauguration of the organ’s new en chamade Tuba stops, as well ‘Disney’s Trumpets‘, composed in February 2011 for the organ at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles, where it was premiered by the composer the following month.

In April 2008, Stephen Tharp was named the Official Organist for the NY visit of Pope Benedict XVI, playing for three major events attended by more than 60,000 people that were broadcast live worldwide. Mr. Tharp’s playing has also been heard on both English and Irish national television, on Radio Prague, orgelnieuws.nl in the Netherlands, and in the U. S. on American Public Media’s Pipedreams. In both 2005 and 2011, Pipedreams broadcast entire programs dedicated exclusively to his career, making him one of the few organists in the world so honored.

He is also an active chamber musician nationwide, having performed on organ, piano and harpsichord with artists such as Thomas Hampson, Itzhak Perlman, Jennifer Larmore, Rachel Barton Pine, the American Boychoir (James Litton, conductor), the St. Thomas Choir (John Scott, conductor, in Duruflé’s Requiem), and at Carnegie Hall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Alice Tully Hall and Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center.

His commercial release The Complete Organ Works of Jeanne Demessieux on Aeolus, received the 2009 Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik, Germany’s premier critic’s prize for recordings, as well as the French 5 Diapason award. The release was celebrated in October 2010 with Mr. Tharp’s performance of the complete Demessieux works live over three concerts at New York’s Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Stephen Tharp plays St. Bavo, Haarlem, The Netherlands on the JAV Recordings label was called “the most beautiful CD of 2009” by Resmusica in France.
Stephen Tharp earned his BA degree, magna cum laude, from Illinois College, Jacksonville, IL and his MM from Northwestern University, Chicago, where he studied with Rudolf Zuiderveld and Wolfgang Rübsam, respectively. He has also worked privately with Jean Guillou in Paris.

Sorry, this entry is only available in French.

Sorry, this entry is only available in French.

Jean-Baptiste MONNOT is currently the titular organist of the Cavaillé-Coll organ at St. Ouen Church in Rouen.

Born in 1984 in France, he began studying piano and organ at age 12. In 2002,  he won the 1st prize awarded unanimously by the jury of the 4^th edition of Young Organist Competition presided over Marie-Claire Alain and he received his Bachelor in Music degree (Diplôme d’études musicales régionales).

In 2003 he was awarded the 1^st Prize of perfection in organ. He gained entrance to the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris in 2004, at age 20, and was awarded the 1^st Prize of excellence in organ.

In May 2007 he received his Master’s Degree (Diplôme de Formation Supérieure) in organ with first class honours, in the class of Olivier Latry and Michel Bouvard before he improved his skills from Bernhard Haas in the Stuttgart Hochschule für Musik.

He participated several times between 2003 and 2005 in master classes given by Jean Guillou at the Zürich Tonhalle and at St. Eutasche Church (Paris) in 2007. From 2004 to 2014 he was Jean Guillou‘s assisstant at St. Eutasche Church.

As a soloist, he performs regularly with ensembles or orchestras all over the world. He also performed during festivals such as La Chaise-Dieu (France), Rouen (St. Ouen Church), Annecy, Paris, Berlin, Naumbourg (Germany), Piacenza (Italy), Rome, New-Orleans, Ostrava (Czech Republic), Vienna (Austria), Sydney, London, etc.

In 2010 he managed the creation of the incidental music for Macbeth by Jean Guillou in the framework of a Japanese tour (Kyoto concert Hall, Nagoya concert Hall) under the supervision of Masaru Sekine. Soon after, he was appointed as artiste-in-residence in St. Louis Cathedral, New Orleans. In 2011 he gave a concert as a soloist with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra and in 2014, he gave a concert at the Österreichischer Rundfunk of Vienna (Austria), broadcast live.

Pierre MÉA was born in Reims (France) in 1971. He studied music in Reims under the famous organist Olivier Latry and was awarded a first prize for organ in 1988. The same year he was also a finalist at the International Organ Competition in Nimège in the Netherlands. He further studied under Michel Chapuis, Michel Bouvard and Louis Robillard, all distinguished professors of organ music.

In 1991 he was awarded two first prizes in Organ and Harmony from the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris and, in 1993 he obtained a Diploma for Excellence in Organ Performance from the Conservatoire de Lyon.

In 1992, Pierre Méa became a winner of the Yehudi Menuhin Foundation. He was substitute organist at Notre-Dame de Paris for eleven years and is currently the regular organist of Reims  Cathedral.

Pierre has performed with renowned orchestras such as the Orchestre de Paris, the French National Orchestra, the Cappella of Saint Petersburg and the National Orchestra of Montpellier Languedoc – Roussillon, under famous conductors such as Riccardo Muti, Kurt Masur, Leonard Slatkin and Vladislav Tchernouchenko.

He has also been Professor of Organ at the Conservatoire National de Région de Reims since 1994.

Based in France since 2011, David HIRST is the titular organist of the Collégiale Notre-Dame in Mantes-la-Jolie. As such, he is responsible for all the organ music for this magnificent gothic edifice, including special services for the Diocese of Versailles. He is also responsible for the organ music at the nearby Romanesque church of Sainte-Anne de Gassicourt.

Born in Haslemere, south of London, David was fascinated by the organ at the age of five and soon started his musical training with the piano, and later the organ, violin and trombone. From the age of eight he was a chorister at Chichester Cathedral (twinned with the city of Chartres) under Dr John Birch where he sang eight services a week and performed in numerous concerts, tours, recordings and broadcasts. During a choir tour to France, he sung a mass and a concert in Chartres Cathedral and fell in love with the country and its architecture.

At the age of 18, David won the organ scholarship to Emmanuel College, Cambridge where he played for the chapel services and concerts, directed the choirs and orchestra, and organised the weekly recital series and other musical events. He also led choir tours to France where he directed concerts and services at Chartres Cathedral and several Parisian churches, including La Trinité, La Madeleine and the Sacré-Cœur Basilica. During his three years at Cambridge he completed his academic study of music with a master’s degree while refining his organ performance with Nicolas Kynaston.

David subsequently worked in international business. He lived in Japan for six years becoming fluent in Japanese, and studied for two years in Los Angeles where he gained an MBA from UCLA. He worked for companies including Fujitsu and McKinsey, and was later appointed Managing Director of Harrison & Harrison, the UK’s largest organ-building company.

Returning to his career as an organist, in 2002 David was appointed Assistant Organist of St Martin-in-the-Fields, the royal parish church in London. As well as the five weekly choral services, he played for royal and celebrity services, concerts, recordings, tours, and regular broadcasts for the BBC. He pursued further development of his organ performance with Thomas Trotter, and later with Lionel Rogg at the Royal Academy of Music in London where he gained a postgraduate diploma in organ performance with distinction.

On moving to France, David became the titular organist of St Germain du Chesnay, near Versailles and expanded his musical activities accompanying choral concerts in the region and developing his recital engagements in France and abroad. He appears regularly as a recitalist at the annual organ festival in Mantes which has featured organists such as Olivier Latry, Jean Guillou, Louis Robilliard and Daniel Roth. He also performs at the church of Saint-Germain-en-Laye where Marie-Claire Alain was once the titular organist, and collaborates with her successor, to promote organ music in the region through lecture-recitals and featured concerts.

David enjoys performing throughout the world and has played in a number of European countries as well as South Africa, Singapore and Japan. His extensive repertoire stretches from the Renaissance through to contemporary music, and he has a particular appreciation for the works of J.S. Bach and composers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. His CD recordings include The Spirit of St Martin’s (the choir and organ of St Martin-in-the-Fields) and Welte Restored (the organ of Salomons Theatre with the Royal Academy of Music). Most recently he recorded the first CD of the Merklin and Cogez organs of the Collégiale at Mantes-la-Jolie.

Daniel GOTTFRIED studied organ with Michael Gailit and composition with Christian Minkowitsch at Musik und Kunstuniversität Vienna where he graduated from with honors in 2015 and 2016 respectively.
Since 2015, Gottfried is titular organist of Vienna’s Jesuit Church.

Since September 2016 he is pursuing thorough studies of French music as well as its tradition on the organ in the class of François Espinasse and Liesbeth Schlumberger at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Lyon. He has participated in numerous master-classes of the world’s best organists and has received important artistic advice from Louis Robilllard.

Daniel Gottfried has appeared in concert as a soloist at renowned organ festivals in France and Austria as well as in Italy and the UK. He is engaged in several chamber music projects and has been part of orchestra productions of, among others, the Orchestre National de Lyon.
Solo Recitals in the Auditorium National de Lyon and in Saint-Séverin church in Paris mark recent highlights of his active career as performer. This summer he will be organist in residence at the festival Chaise Dieu in Auvergne.

Barbara CORNET started the organ at Besançon conservatory of music with Bernard Coudurier and Pierre-Yves Fleury. She was later accepted at the Saint-Maur-des-fossés conservatory pursuing her studies with Éric Lebrun and obtained an organ diploma, whilst improving her knowledge in musical analysis, writing and accompaniment.

She regularly performs in various concerts and festivals (« Orgue en Ville » festival, « Bach en Combrailles » festival, Besançon, Paris, Fontainebleau…)

In 2018 she was awarded the young musician prize by the Deutsch-Franzözische Gesellschaft (French-German alliance) of Freiburg.

She is also organist of the historical Saint-Remi church organ in Maison-Alfort and is the founder of the « Saison musicale de l’église Saint-Remi ».

At the same time she is undertaking a bachelor’s degree in management at the Paris-Dauphine University, with a flexible timetable that allows her to fully develop her musicianship.