Skip to main content

Jean-Baptiste Robin to Oberlin Conservatory

Jean-Baptiste Robin
Jean-Baptiste Robin

Jean-Baptiste Robin is appointed visiting artist-in-residence for the 2019–2020 academic year for Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Oberlin, Ohio.

Robin is organist of the Royal Chapel at the Palace of Versailles, France, and is professor of organ at the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional in Versailles.

He will collaborate with Jonathan Moyer and Christa Rakich in several projects related to French Baroque music and improvisation.

For information: www.jbrobin.com.

Jean-Baptiste Robin is represented by Phillip Truckenbrod Concert Artists: www.concertartists.com.

Related Content

Jean-Baptiste Robin plays Lully

Jean-Baptiste Robin plays March and 5 variations by Jean-Baptiste Lully.

The theme from the "Turkish March" (from Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme) by Jean-Baptiste Lully is one of the most famous from the 17th century in France. Mr. Robin invented five variations on this famous melody: a trio, a dialogue, a duo, Flûtes, and a Grand Jeu.

The organ case is by Antoni Carbonell from 1538 It is the largest and most important historical organ in Catalonia. The organ has been rebuilt on various occasions, adapting to the successive aesthetic changes of music and liturgy, as well as the technical advances of the organ which have transformed the initially Renaissance instrument into a baroque one (1700), later on a romantic instrument (1935), and now a neo-baroque organ.

Jean-Baptiste Robin is regarded as one of the most prominent French concert organists and composers of today. With his appointment in 2010 as Organist of the Royal Chapel at the Palace of Versailles, he was secured a place in a long line of famous French organists, such as François Couperin, Louis Marchand, Louis-Claude Daquin, and Claude Balbastre. He also serves as Professor of Organ and Composition at the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional in Versailles.

Jean Baptiste Robin is represented in North America exclusively by Phillip Truckenbrod Concert Artists, LLC. www.concertartists.com 

Jean-Baptiste Robin plays Bach G-major, 541

Jean-Baptiste Robin plays Bach's Prelude and Fugue in G Major, BWV 541, at Barcelona Cathedral, Spain.

The organ case is by Antoni Carbonell from 1538 It is the largest and most important historical organ in Catalonia. The organ has been rebuilt on various occasions, adapting to the successive aesthetic changes of music and liturgy, as well as the technical advances of the organ which have transformed the initially Renaissance instrument into a baroque one (1700), later on a romantic instrument (1935), and now a neo-baroque organ.

The Prelude (Vivace) opens with a toccata-style "solo" introduction. It is written in uninterrupted sixteenth notes that ignite from the treble of the keyboard to the bass, before plunging into the initial high G. Bach makes the plenum sparkle here with luminous arpeggios and jubilant scales.

This introduction leads to a concerto which marks the real departure of the prelude. This prelude focuses on three musical elements: a flow of sixteenth notes that extend the introductory toccata, a fanfare on a broken chord and repeated notes. The joy is sometimes attenuated by modulations in more melancholic tones (B minor bar 39 and bar 46) but Bach always reaffirms the positive energy.

The Fugue is built on a subject in repeated notes that Bach gradually announced in the prelude: the insistent chords at the beginning of the prelude gradually turn into repeated notes (bar. 47), then the music looks more and more like the subject ( bars 61-62 and following). This astonishing process of transformation shows that Bach seeks here again the concentration of the elements of speech. We also note that we find this subject almost verbatim (but in C minor) in the first choir of the cantata "Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis" BWV 21 (1713-1714). It also recalls that of Corelli's 4th Sonata Opus 5 for violin. This fugue expresses confident joy. 

Jean-Baptiste Robin is regarded as one of the most prominent French concert organists and composers of today. With his appointment in 2010 as Organist of the Royal Chapel at the Palace of Versailles, he was secured a place in a long line of famous French organists, such as François Couperin, Louis Marchand, Louis-Claude Daquin, and Claude Balbastre. He also serves as Professor of Organ and Composition at the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional in Versailles.

Jean Baptiste Robin is represented in North America exclusively by Phillip Truckenbrod Concert Artists, LLCwww.concertartists.com 

Christopher Houlihan plays Mendelssohn Sonata No. 1

Christopher Houlihan plays Sonata No. 1 in F Minor, Opus 65, Number 1, by Felix Mendelssohn.
Performed at St. James Church, Los Angeles; David John Falconer Memorial Organ (originally built in 1911 for St. Paul’s Pro-Cathedral, Los Angeles, by Murray M. Harris), Austin Organs, Inc., Opus 2762, 1995; 91 ranks, 7 divisions, and some 5,000 pipes.

Christopher Houlihan holds the John Rose College Organist-and-Directorship Distinguished Chair of Chapel Music at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, succeeding his former teacher, John Rose. He was previously artist-in-residence at Trinity College, as well as Director of Music and Organist at the Church of the Holy Apostles in Manhattan.

In addition to his studies at Trinity College, Houlihan studied with the Grammy Award-winning organist Paul Jacobs at The Juilliard School and with Jean-Baptiste Robin at the French National Regional Conservatory in Versailles. In 2015 he was selected for The Diapason's "20 Under 30", a distinguished list of leaders in the organ world. 

More information is at ChristopherHoulihan.com.  

Christopher Houlihan is represented in North America exclusively by Phillip Truckenbrod Concert Artists, LLC
www.concertartists.com 

Renée Anne Louprette

Renée Anne Louprette (photo credit: Joshua South)
Renée Anne Louprette (photo credit: Joshua South)

"She presented herself as a communicative player with no shortage of imaginative ideas, with
fingers fully capable of backing them up, and with feet which are not just nimble on the pedals, 
but every bit as expressively articulate as her fingers." (Michael Dervan, The Irish Times)

Hailed by The New York Times as “splendid,” and “one of New York's finest organists,” Renée Anne Louprette maintains an international career as organ recitalist, collaborative artist, conductor, and teacher, and is director of the National Competition in Organ Improvisation. She is associated with several distinguished music programs in the New York City area, having served as Associate Director of Music at the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola, Associate Director of Music and the Arts at Trinity Wall Street, Organist and Associate Director at the Unitarian Church of All Souls, and Director of Music at the Church of Notre Dame.

Ms. Louprette is a U.S.-Romanian Fulbright Scholar who spent the Fall 2022 season in Brașov, Transylvania, completing research on historic Romanian pipe organs. She is Assistant Professor of Music and College Organist at Bard College and a member of the faculty of Bard College Conservatory, where she directs the Bard Baroque Ensemble and leads an annual Bach cantata series. She has directed the organ program at Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University since 2013 and is a former faculty member at the Manhattan School of Music, The Hartt School of the University of Hartford, and the John J. Cali School of Music of Montclair State University. 

Ms. Louprette’s European festival recital appearances include Internationaler Orgelsommer, Stuttgart, Germany; Magadino, Switzerland; In Tempore Organi, Italy; Ghent and Hasselt, Belgium; Copenhagen and Aarhus, Denmark; Uppsala and Lund cathedrals, Sweden; Bordeaux Cathedral and Toulouse Les Orgues, France, and Organ Nights in Brașov, Romania. In 2018, she made her solo debuts at the Royal Festival Hall in London and the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris. She has performed throughout the United Kingdom and Ireland, including at Westminster Abbey and the Temple Church in London, St. Giles Cathedral Edinburgh and Dunblane Cathedral (Scotland), Galway Cathedral and Dún Laoghaire (Ireland). 

Her recording of J. S. Bach’s "Great Eighteen Chorales" on the Metzler organ of Trinity College, Cambridge, England, was named a classical music Critics' Choice 2014 by The New York Times. “Une voix française | A French Voice”—her recording of 20th-century French organ repertoire on the Mander organ of St. Ignatius Loyola in New York—received top reviews in British journals Choir & Organ and Organists’ Review and the Dutch journal Orgelniews. Her current recording of Bach’s Clavier-Übung III performed on the Craighead-Saunders organ of Christ Church, Rochester, New York, is scheduled for release in 2023. 

As a collaborative keyboardist, Ms. Louprette has performed with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra in Brisbane, Australia, the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, the American Brass Quintet, Voices of Ascension, Clarion Music Society, American Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Dance Project, The Dessoff Choirs, Oratorio Society of New York, and Piffaro, among many other ensembles. She has partnered with traditional Irish musician Ivan Goff, with whom she debuted at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles presenting the world premiere of a new work for uilleann pipes and organ by Eve Beglarian, commissioned for the Louprette-Goff duo by the Los Angeles Philharmonic. The duo released their album “Bright Vision” to critical acclaim in 2019. The 2021-2022 season featured a join recital in Cluj-Napoca with Romanian saxophonist Zoltán Réman, concerto debuts with The Orchestra Now at the Bard Music Festival “Nadia Boulanger and her World” and with the Auburn Symphony Orchestra at Benaroya Hall in Seattle for the national convention of the American Guild of Organists. 

Ms. Louprette has conducted performances by professional choirs in the greater New York City area accompanied by members of Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Trinity Baroque Orchestra, and the Orchestra of St. Ignatius Loyola, including the acclaimed U.S. premiere of John Tavener’s Requiem as co-conductor with Kent Tritle. She was selected as a conducting fellow of the Mostly Modern Festival in 2019, premiering several new works with the New York-based American Modern Ensemble. 

Renée Anne Louprette holds a Master of Music degree in conducting from Bard College Conservatory, a Bachelor of Music degree summa cum laude in piano performance and Graduate Professional Diploma in organ performance from The Hartt School, University of Hartford. She was awarded a Premier Prix - mention très bien from the Conservatoire National de Région de Toulouse, France and a Diplôme Supérieur in organ performance from the Centre d’Études Supérieures de Musique et de Danse de Toulouse where she studied with Michel Bouvard and Jan Willem Jansen (interpretation) and Philippe Lefebvre (improvisation). She completed additional studies in organ with Dame Gillian Weir, James David Christie, and Guy Bovet.

Renée Anne Louprette is represented in North America exclusively by Phillip Truckenbrod Concert Artists, LLC. 
www.concertartists.com
E-mail:  [email protected]
Phone: 860-560-7800
10 Abbott Lane, Dearborn, MI 48120-1001

Current Issue