Olivier Latry

Olivier Latry is a veteran of organ recitals in over 50 countries across five continents and has been particularly associated with the music of Messiaen. His refinement, interpretive vitality, exacting pursuit of tonal colour and unflappable control have made him the go-to performer for the inauguration of major new instruments in Vienna’s Musikverein, the Philharmonie de Paris and the Palace of the Arts, Budapest. Latry was born in Boulogne-sur-Mer in 1962, his interest in the organ first sparked by hearing the great French organist Pierre Cochereau. Following Cochereau’s death in 1984, Latry, at the age of 23, was one of four chosen to follow in his footsteps as “titulaire des grandes orgues de Notre Dame, Paris”. He celebrated the new millennium with cycles of Messiaen’s complete organ works in Paris, New York and London. He is instinctively undogmatic, equally at home in romantic arrangements of J.S. Bach or ambitious orchestral transcriptions (including an organ duo version of Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring”). As well as being an improviser of immense flair, he’s also particularly drawn to contemporary music: in 2014 he gave the premiere of Kaija Saariaho’s Maan varjot (Earth’s Shadows) for organ and orchestra, a piece written with Latry’s prowess in mind.