Mauricio Croci

Mauricio Croci

is an internationally renowned concert organist, Organ Professor at the Haute Ecole de Musique Vaud Valais Fribourg (HEMU) and the Artistic Director of the Festival International d’Orgue de Fribourg (Switzerland) and of the International Early Music Festival Milano Arte Musica.

Prize-Winner of the “Paul Hofhaimer” International Competition in Innsbruck, Maurizio Croci has been invited to play throughout Europe, Russia, Japan and South America and in festivals such Toulouse les Orgues, Organ Festival Holland, St Albans Organ Festival.

In 2000, he performed in Bern J. S. Bach’s complete organ works.

Maurizio Croci’s compact disc recordings featuring among others, G. Frescobaldi, J. S. Bach, G. F. Kauffmann, A. Soler (in duo with Pieter van Dijk), and A. Gabrieli. His Bach organ and harpsichord recording “Bach Mirrored” received the “Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik”.

Maurizio Croci studied Organ and Harpsichord in Conservatories of Milano and Trento and continued at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis with Jean-Claude Zehnder and Andrea Marcon. He graduated in Musicology at Fribourg University with Luigi Ferdinando Tagliavini.

 

mauriziocroci.com/

Isabelle Demers

Isabelle Demers

Born in Québec, Canada, organist Isabelle Demers has long won over audiences and critics alike with her exceptionally virtuoso and courageous playing. She studied and graduated from the Juilliard School in New York and is a regular guest in the largest concert halls and churches, including Cologne and Regensburg Cathedrals, St. Paul's Cathedral, the Royal Festival Hall London, the Royal Albert Hall London, the Royal Opera House of Muscat in Oman, Yale University and Melbourne Town Hall.

The high esteem in which she is held by her colleagues is reflected in her repeated invitations to relevant specialist conferences in the USA and Canada, such as the American Guild of Organists in Minneapolis, Washington D.C. and Houston, the joint congress of the Institute of Organ Builders and the International Society of Organbuilders in Montréal, the Royal Canadian College of Organists in Toronto, Kingston and Hamilton, and the Organ Historical Society in Vermont and Minnesota.

Isabelle Demers already succeeded in attracting the attention of a wide audience with her debut album. Her second CD with works by the Canadian organist and composer Rachel Laurin, released in 2011, was also received with the highest praise by the press. Her other CD recordings include works by Johann Sebastian Bach, John Bull, Max Reger and Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, and she can also be heard as a solo organist with the Baylor University Choir in Maurice Duruflé’s Requiem.

In addition to her artistic activities, Isabelle Demers teaches as a lecturer and head of the organ department at McGill University in Montréal, Canada.

Nicolas Berndt

Nicolas Berndt

studied church music in Leipzig and Freiburg and concert organ with Martin Schmeding, Matthias Maierhofer and Ullrich Böhme, Karl-Ludwig Kreutz and David Timm, among others. Nicolas Berndt was awarded 1st prize at the International Mendelssohn Competition in Switzerland (2015). He also won 1st prize and the audience prize at the competition as part of the 10th FUGATO Organ Festival (2014), 1st prize at the XI International Gottfried Silbermann Organ Competition in Freiberg (2013) and a prize at the Grand Prix d'Echo in Freiberg (2014). In 2019, he was chosen from a large number of applicants for the position of Wenceslas organist in Naumburg. He also performs at home and abroad, including with ensembles such as the Freiburg Philharmonic Orchestra, the Saxon Baroque Orchestra and the Gewandhaus Orchestra. Several TV and radio recordings complete his profile.

Daniel Moult

Daniel Moult

is an internationally renowned concert organist, organ tutor, and recording artist. He has directed the highly acclaimed organ department at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire since 2017, where he has spearheaded the commissioning of and is the main consultant for five new organs.

Daniel performs regularly and leads masterclasses throughout the UK, Europe, Asia and Australia. He is highly in demand throughout Europe as an educator, having also directed many courses in the UK for the Royal College of Organists (for whom he also examines). He has performed on various CDs and DVDs, including as concerto soloist on “Handel at Vauxhall”. He has pioneered the use of film as a means of promoting organ music, and is the presenter and performer of the seven-disc boxset, “The English Organ”. He performs and presents on two new boxsets: “Bach and Expression” alongside Martin Schmeding, featuring some of the finest historic instruments in Central Germany, and “The Great Toccata” recorded in Groningen and Leens.

Born in Manchester, Daniel studied at Oxford University and the Amsterdam Conservatorium. After graduating, he was Organist and Assistant Director of Music at Coventry Cathedral, before pursuing a freelance career in 2003. He has published several editions, including various organ anthologies for Bärenreiter. He has broadcast frequently on BBC television and radio and has recorded for various record labels. 

danielmoult.com

Nathan Laube

Nathan LaubeNathan Laube

is a leading performer and pedagogue. He is Associate Professor of Organ at the Eastman School of Music, as well as International Consultant in Organ Studies at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire in the United Kingdom.  From 2020 to 2022 he was is a member of the organ faculty at the State University of Music and Performing Arts in Stuttgart, Germany. His extensive international recital career takes him continually to major concert venues and festivals around the world.  Known for his brilliant playing, gracious demeanor, and creative programming of repertoire spanning five centuries including his own virtuoso transcriptions of orchestral works, Nathan Laube has earned high praise from critics and peers alike.

nathanlaube.com

Thomas Lennartz

Thomas LennartzThomas Lennartz

is professor for organ improvisation at University of Music and Theatre Leipzig and head of church music studies.

Born 1971 in Hanover, Lennartz studied church music, organ and organ improvisation in Hanover, Cologne, Leipzig and Paris and graduated from the soloist class with distinction and with the A-Diploma in church music. Important teachers were Ullrich Bremsteller, Arvid Gast, Volker Bräutigam, Thierry Escaich and Loïc Mallié, in masterclasses he also worked with Daniel Roth, Olivier Latry, Wolfgang Seifen, Ton Koopman and others.

Thomas Lennartz received a scholarship of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation and was a prize-winner in a number of international competitions for organ improvisation including St. Albans / England, Saarbrücken „Orgues sans frontières“ and Schwäbisch Gmünd.

From 2003 to 2008 Lennartz worked as a church musician in Bingen am Rhein. In 2008 he was appointed as cathedral organist in Dresden (former „Hofkirche“) with the famous Gottfried Silbermann Organ. In 2014 he became professor in Leipzig.

Thomas Lennartz enjoys playing concerts in Germany, various countries of Europe, the USA and Japan. He is regularly invited to give masterclasses.

Pier Damiano Peretti

Pier Damiano Peretti

has been Professor of Organ at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna since 2009. From 2002-2009 he taught at the Hanover University of Music, Theatre and Media, and in 2024 as a visiting professor at the Berlin University of the Arts.

Born in Vicenza, Italy, in 1974, he studied organ in his hometown (with Antonio Cozza), in Hamburg (with Wolfgang Zerer and Pieter van Dijk) and in Vienna (with Herbert Tachezi and Michael Radulescu).

He has won various prizes at international organ competitions, including in Bologna, Pretoria, Innsbruck, Hamburg and Toulouse. In 1999, he was the only Italian to win first prize (interpretation) at the traditional international organ competition in St Albans.

With a repertoire ranging from the Renaissance to contemporary music, Pier Damiano Peretti has performed throughout Europe, the Far East, Israel, South Africa and Canada.

He has given masterclasses at the Haarlem International Organ Academy, the European Organ Academy Leipzig, the Academia de Organo de Palencia and the Gothenburg Organ Academy, among others, and is a juror at international organ competitions, including those in Odense, Tokyo, Erfurt-Weimar, Montreal, Brixen and St Albans.

In 2015, Pier Damiano Peretti was honoured with the Outstanding Artist Award of the Austrian Federal Chancellery.

Jean-Baptiste Robin

Jean-Baptiste Robin

is a French composer and organist of international renown. He received five first prizes at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris and a Master's degree in composition from King's College of Music in London.

In 2010 he was appointed one of the four organists of the Royal Chapel at the Palace of Versailles.

He has performed as a soloist throughout the world, including the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, the Auditorio Nacional de Madrid, the Berlin Philharmonie and the Sejong Cultural Centre in Seoul.

A passionate teacher, he is a visiting professor at the International Academy Haarlem and has been organist in residence at Yale and Oberlin Universities in the USA and at the Central Conservatory in Beijing. He has been a member of the jury at the Canadian International Organ Competition (CIOC), the Silbermann and Buxtehude International Organ Competitions, and the St Albans Organ Competition in England.

His extensive discography includes the complete organ works of François Couperin, Louis Marchand, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and Jehan Alain, as well as recordings of several organ recitals in the USA and recordings of his own works.

Jean-Baptiste Robin teaches organ and composition at the Conservatoire à rayonnement régional de Versailles Grand Parc.

Martin Schmeding

Martin Schmeding

was born in 1975 and studied church music, music education, recorder and organ, choir and orchestra conducting, harpsichord, and music theory in Hannover, Amsterdam and Düsseldorf. Among his teachers are Ulrich Bremsteller, Lajos Rovatkay, Hans van Nieuwkoop, Jacques van Oortmerssen and Jean Boyer. He was a prizewinner in many competitions, among them the Mendelssohn Bartholdy in Berlin, the Pachelbel in Nuremberg, the German music competition in Berlin/Bonn, the European competition for young organists in Ljubljana/Slovenia, and the Musica antiqua in Bruges/Belgium. Martin Schmeding was choir director and organist of the Nazareth Church in Hanover, worked at the Neander Church in Düsseldorf ansd was titular organist of the Kreuzkirche in Dresden from 2002 until 2004. He has taught as professor of organ at the University of Music in Freiburg from 2004 to 2016, where he was also the chair of the church-music and organ department. Since 2016 he is professor for artistic organ playing at the University of Music and Theatre Leipzig and artistic director oft he European Organ Academy Leipzig. 2017 Martin Schmeding was awarded "Professor of the Year", since 2018 he is visiting professor at the Royal Conservatoire Birmingham.
Martin Schmeding has made numerous radio and CD recordings, among them the complete organ music of F. Schmidt, J. Brahms, F. Mendelssohn Bartholdy, as well as the first recordings on a period instrument of the complete music for pedal piano by Robert Schumann and of the organ version of the Goldberg Variations by J. S. Bach on a baroque instrument. He has written for many publications and has given concerts as a soloist, chamber musician and with orchestras all over the world. Martin Schmeding is also active as a guest-lecturer at master-classes, publishes articles and music editions for important magazines and publishers. Engagements as a juror at competitions, conductor and composer complete his artistic career.

www.martin-schmeding.de

Ben van Ooste

Ben van Ooste

was born in The Hague in 1955. He studied organ and piano at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam and in Paris. Since 1970 his numerous highly successful concert tours have taken Ben van Oosten to the foremost international organ venues, where he has emerged as one of the most remarkable organ virtuosos of our time. In addition to his concert career he gives organ masterclasses in many countries. He was Professor of Organ at Codarts University for the Arts in Rotterdam from 1994 until his retirement in 2021.

Ben van Oosten has dedicated himself exhaustively to French symphonic organ music. His recordings of the eight organ sonatas of Alexandre Guilmant and the complete organ works of César Franck, Camille Saint-Saëns, Louis Vierne, Charles-Marie Widor and Marcel Dupré have been awarded many international prizes (including the Echo Klassik, Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik, Choc du Monde de la Musique and Diapason d’Or). In 2019 his recording of the complete organ works of César Franck has won the Opus Klassik.  

Ben van Oosten is also author of the comprehensive Widor biography, “Charles-Marie Widor – Vater der Orgelsymphonie” (Charles-Marie Widor – Father of The Organ Symphony). 

Because of his services to French organ culture Ben van Oosten was honoured on three occasions by the Société Académique Arts, Sciences, Lettres in Paris. The French government created him Chevalier (1998) and Officier (2011) dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, and in 2010 Beatrix the Queen of The Netherlands appointed him Knight in the Order of the Netherlands Lion. On the occasion of his 50th anniversary as an international concert organist (2020) he was awarded the City Medal from the municipality of The Hague.

Ben van Oosten is Titular Organist of the Grote Kerk in The Hague and Artistic Director of the international organ festival that takes place annually in this church.