Louis Thiry

Louis Thiry (born 1935 in Fléville-devant-Nancy), is a French organist, composer and pedagogue.

Thiry studied at the Nancy Conservatoire, where he received a first prize in organ at the Nancy Conservatory (organ class of Jeanne Demessieux) in 1952, followed by studies with André Marchal at Institut National des Jeunes Aveugles in Paris. In 1958, Thiry graduated with a first prize in organ performance at the Paris Conservatoire (organ class of Rolande Falcinelli).

French composer Olivier Messiaen wrote about him : «Louis Thiry is an extraordinary organist. An accomplished virtuose, an-allround musician, with unequalled memory and skill : he may be classed among the heroes of music (he has given several fine performances of my most difficult organ works -in particular my “Messe de la Pentecôte”). All those who have heard and all those who will hear Louis Thiry can but admire him.»

He has taken part in many festivals all over the world, including Lille Besançon, Festival estival de Paris, Haarlem, the Messiaen Festival in Moscow, Venice, Palermo, Madrid, Vienna, Geneva, Düsseldorf, Koln, Karlsruhe, Luxembourg, Brussels, Antwerp, London, Helsinki, Copenhagen, Salzbourg, Oslo, Cambridge, Noumea (Nouvelle Calédonie), Taipeh (Republic of China).

James Thomas, conductor of the Cambridge Choral Society and Director of Music of St Edmundsbury Cathedral is one of his former students.

Louis Thiry has recorded the complete organ works of Olivier Messiaen in 1972 at St. Pierre Cathedral in Geneva for Calliope (record label) (Grand Prix du Disque de l'Académie Charles Cros), the Well Tempered Clavier (1972 at the Église Réformée d’Auteuil, 1975, and The Art of Fugue by Johann Sebastian Bach (1993) at Saint Thomas Church (Strasbourg).

He is titular organist of the famous Lefebvre organ at the Chapel of the "Charles Nicole" Hospital in Rouen, as well as Professor of organ at the Regional Conservatoire in Rouen. In addition, he was honored with the Chevalier de l’Ordre national du Mérite.