Oberlin Conservatory of Music welcomes two visiting professors of organ for 2012–13

Oberlin Conservatory of Music welcomes two distinguished visiting professors of organ during the 2012–13 academic year. Madame Marie-Louise Langlais, professor emeritus of organ at the Paris Conservatory of Music, will be in residence for fall 2012. During spring 2013, Dame Gillian Weir, OBE, professor of organ at the Royal College of Music, will join the organ faculty.

Having served as co-titular organist of the Basilica of Sainte Clotilde with her late husband Jean Langlais, Marie-Louise Langlais is in demand for her expertise on French organ music, especially the Ste. Clotilde tradition (César Franck, Charles Tournemire, and Jean Langlais). A prolific performer and recording artist, she has also authored the book, Jean Langlais: Ombre et Lumière (Editions Combre, Paris, 1995). For Symétrie publications (France) she edited Jean-Louis Florentz, l’oeuvre d’orgue, a book of essays on the life and music of the late 20th-century composer. Mme. Langlais was appointed professor of organ at the Paris Conservatory of Music (CRR) in 1988, and retired in spring 2011. In addition to teaching private organ at Oberlin Conservatory, she will offer an introductory course on improvisation in the French tradition, as well as weekly, studio-wide masterclasses. 



Gillian Weir is in demand as an adjudicator for international competitions, as well as a lecturer, broadcaster, teacher, and writer, and her television appearances have reached vast new audiences. In 1999, Classic CD magazine named her among the 100 Greatest Players of the Century, and the London Sunday Times listed her among the 1000 Music Makers of the Millennium. In 2004 Malcolm Riley honored her with the prestigious Critic’s Choice Award in Gramophone magazine. Gillian Weir has appeared with orchestras in over 300 performances around the world. A past president of the Royal College of Organists and the Incorporated Society of Organists in England, she currently holds the Prince Consort Professor of Organ Chair at the Royal College of Music in London. In 1996, the New Year’s Honours List named her Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in recognition of her services to music. In addition to her private teaching for the organ department at Oberlin, Dame Gillian will offer weekly masterclasses and lectures.