VERO BEACH — The Community Concert Series is proud to present the annual Songson Lee Memorial concert on Sunday, Dec. 9, at 4 p.m. at the Community Church of Vero Beach, 1901 23rd St.
This year the lecture/recital will feature the world renowned organist, author, and professor Marie-Lousie Langlais, wife of the preeminent organist and composer Jean Langlais.
She is praised by Rotterdammer for her “intensely musical playing, full of passion, her remarkable technique and excellent registrations, which always bring a standing ovation.”
At her lecture, she will discuss, as a leading expert of organ history in the French tradition, the Sainte-Clotilde School: Ceasar Franck, Charles Tournemire, and Jean Langlais.
A prolific performer and recording artist, she has also authored the most important book ever published on Jean Langlais; Jean Langlais: Ombre et Lumière (Editions Combre, Paris, 1995,) which won the 1999 special award Prix de L’Institut de France.
As a portion of the concert, Mme. Langlais will accompany the Atlantic Children’s Chorale in the area premier of Jean Langlais’ Messe D’Escalquens.
Marie-Louise Langlais is professor emeritus of organ at the Paris Conservatory of Music (CRR.) Currently she is in the United States as the visiting exchange professor at Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio for the fall/winter academic year 2012.
The lecture/concert is at no charge to the public, but a free will offering will be gratefully accepted.
For more information, please call (772) 469-2317.
About Marie-Louise Landlais
Born in Casablanca (Marocco,) Marie-Louise Jaquet began studying music at a very young age. Her first degree at university was a Master in Law from the University of Strasbourg (1965.)
She then moved to Paris and became a member of the organ class of french composer Jean Langlais at the Schola Cantorum where she received the Virtuosity Diploma for both organ interpretation and improvisation in 1969.
In 1979, having been the organist at the Silbermann organ in Mulhouse for ten years, she married Jean Langlais and served as his assistant at the Basilica of Sainte Clotilde in Paris at the famous Cavaillé-Coll organ of César Franck.
In 1985, she was appointed professor at the Paris Schola Cantorum, and in 1988 she was named organ and improvisation teacher at the Paris “Conservatoire National de Région.”
Marie-Louise Langlais received her Doctor of Musicology degree from the Paris- Sorbonne University in 1992. Her three volume dissertation on the life and complete works of her husband was published in 1995 in a book entitled Ombre et Lumière – Jean Langlais (1907-1991,) published by Editions Combre, Paris, which won the special award “Prix de l’Institut de France,” in 1999.
Later, she wrote a book entirely devoted to the organ works of French organ composer Jean-Louis Florentz (Jean-Louis Florentz (1947-2004,) l’oeuvre d’orgue, témoignages croisés) published in 2009 by Symetrie, Lyon.
She has toured extensively through Europe, Canada, and the United States. She has recorded for many European recording firms such as Festivo (the Netherlands,) Motette, Koch International (Germany,) Arion, Lyrinx, Solstice, Delatour (France,) as a soloist as well as an accompanist with choirs and orchestra.
In 2010, she organized an international congress on the theme: “Organ in Paris in the 1930’s,” whose acts have been published in the French magazine L’Orgue in 2012.
2011 marked Langlais’ twentieth anniversary of the death, and she was involved in many events during this anniversary.