Marie-Claire Alain, concert organist, scholar, and teacher, died February 26 in Paris. She had over 280 recordings to her credit; she had recorded the entire Bach canon of organ works three times, and recorded complete cycles by many other major composers.
Madame Alain was born August 10, 1926 in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France, the youngest in a family of distinguished musicians; her father was organist and composer Albert Alain. With the Allied liberation of Paris in August 1944, Marie-Claire Alain entered the Paris Conservatoire; she studied organ with Dupré and harmony with Duruflé. She presented more than 2,000 recitals worldwide during her career, touring Europe and, beginning in 1961, the U.S.A. Her repertoire was vast, from Couperin, Buxtehude, and Bach, through Mozart, Mendelssohn, Franck, Vierne, and Widor, to works of her brother Jehan Alain.
The list of her many pupils reads as a who’s who of the organ world; they include George Baker, Robert Bates, Diane Bish, Guy Bovet, James David Christie, Lynne Davis, Jesse Eschbach, Stephen Hamilton, Gerre Hancock, James Higdon, Jon Laukvik, Margaret Phillips, Cherry Rhodes, Daniel Roth, Wolfgang Rübsam, Helga Schauerte, Dong-ill Shin, Norma Stevlingson, Donald Sutherland, Thomas Trotter, and many others.
On July 14, 2012, she was elevated to the prestigious rank of Grand Officier de la Légion d’Honneur by the President of France, François Hollande. The National Order of the Legion of Honor was created by Napoléon Bonaparte in 1802. Madame Alain has previously held the ranks of Chevalier, Officier, and Commandeur of the Légion d’Honneur.
The funeral mass took place March 1 at St. Germain-en-Laye. Organists for the service included Daniel Roth, Pierre Pincemaille, Jean-Baptiste Robin, Jean Ferrard, Georges Guillard, Hubert Haye, Bruno Morin, and Vincent Warnier. Military honors were given and her medals and silver wreath were placed on the coffin. See articles in The Diapason: “Marie-Claire Alain—80th birthday tribute” (July 2006), “Jehan Alain: His Life and Works” (July 2012), and “National French Centenary Celebration of the Birth of Jehan Alain” (November 2011).
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