The Worcester Organ Performance Series featuring Frédéric Blanc

Originally from the Southwest of France, Frédéric Blanc began improvising at the piano and the organ very young, and discovered music.   

After his studies at the Conservatories of Toulouse and Bordeaux, he continued perfecting his art with notable French organists André Fleury, Marie-Claire Alain, and Marie-Madeleine Duruflé, of whom he became devoted disciple. 

Winner of several international competitions (the « Grand Prix de Chartres, 2nd prize, 1996;  and the Grand Prize of the Paris International Organ Competition, 1997), he now has a busy career as an international concert artist, playing recitals as a solo artist or with orchestra, and as an accompanist.  In parallel he participates in or leads radio broadcasts, conferences, and master classes throughout Europe and the United States (most recently at the Royal Academy of Music, London), on the subjects of French music and the art of improvisation.  Among the American institutions where he has recently given master classes are Valparaiso University (Indiana), Stanford University (California), Hope College (Holland, Michigan), Northwestern University (Evanston, Illinois), Southern Methodist University (Dallas), and the Curtis Institute of Music (Philadelphia).   

He is regularly invited as a guest recitalist by a number of international organ festivals: Bonn, Chartres, Roquevaire, Toulouse-les-Orgues, Rome, Monaco.   

Frédéric Blanc is a member of the Organ Commission for the City of Paris, and a member of the Commission for non-protected organs [not historically classified by the French State] for the Director of Music for the French Ministry of Culture.   

He has recorded for Motette, EMI, Aeolus, and Baroque Notes, specializing in the French organ school as well as the French art of improvisation; these recording have been praised by music critics in many countries.   

He is the author of a study of the life and works of André Fleury (L’Orgue-cahiers et mémoires), and a monumental work dedicated to the memoirs and writings of Maurice Duruflé (Editions Séguier, Paris), as well as reconstructions of a number of the improvisations of Pierre Cochereau (Editions Butz). He has served as titular organist of the great Cavaillé-Coll organ of the Church of Notre-Dame d’Auteuil, Paris.