An artistic itinerary :

One cannot emerge quite the same after fourteen years of collaboration with the French composer Olivier Messiaen . Prior to that period, I had followed a fairly classic itinerary. First I've started to receive a strict education in my familly, descendant of the Tudor and Stuart families.  Studies at the catholic collège de Juilly (founded by the king of France Henri IV) with the Oratorians allowed me very early access to the organ, since a small instrument was installed in the school chapel loft. My meeting with Jacques Picaud some years later was decisive: it is to him that I owe all I know, both concerning the organ as an instrument and the people who gravitate around it.

Jacques Picaud was the head of the Paris branch of the BEUCHET-DEBIERRE Company, which accomplished most of the successful huge restorations of most of the great French instruments: at the Cathedrals of Angers, Angoulême, Versailles, le Mans, Nantes then in Paris: Ste- Clotilde , Ste- Trinité , St-Marcel, St-Etienne du Mont, St-Louis des Invalides . Also St- Sulpice and Notre-Dame in the years 1920-1930, and St-Eustache from 1973 to 1977  just before the disaster, etc ...

working on the traction at saint-Sulpice  (1984)

Jacques PICAUD is my best souvenir as young studient in organbuilding

in the Beuchet-Debierre company

My very first assignment with Jacques Picaud (I was 17 years old) was to help him at St-Eustache in 1976 some months before he stops the instrument on December 1977, then to restore the organ of the St-Jean- Baptiste de Belleville Church. In 1978, came the major task of restoring the organ of St-Louis des Invalides for Pierre Gazin : adding chamades , making some repairs, changing all the leather parts, etc. It was the year I lost my father and Jacques Picaud gave me a lot of support.  June 1981, Jacques Picaud, François Sebire and me, removed the Nadia Boulanger private organ who died on october 1979. Her funerals were at Trinity Church in Paris and Messiaen did not want to play for, and said "I do not want to play for the funeral of this person who has composed a really bad music, totaly uninteresting". 

In 1979-1980 came the restoration of the Trinité organ for Olivier Messiaen . This work, among other things, involved repairing all the electropneumatic action. A short time later, we repaired the great primary reservoirs of St- Sulpice , followed by the restoration of its magnificent choir organ. What a time! Next, we completely revised the St-Marcel organ, one of Beuchet-Debierre's last realisations, a 3 manuals organ with 53 stops.

I spent over twelve years as organ curator at Saint-Sulpice. It was a great pleasure to see and hear Jean Guillou coming to play fot some sunday evening masses. After Dupré and Grunenwald, he is the ONLY one able to create the perfect sound architecture on this large instrument. Jean Guillou has had the intelligence to refuse to play any more this organ after the disaster of the last restoration.

Then an exceptional intervention: the Besnardière festival, which houses a fantastic instrument built by Detlef Kleuker according to Jean Guillou's tonal plans. I was marked for life by the style of this organ. Its entire sound palette was different from what I had known until then. During the same period, we went regularly to Rouen for maintenance of the St- Ouen Abbey organ. Picaud dealt with this instrument for the memorable recordings by Pierre Labric , who was and remains one of the greatest French players. Without any doubt, Labric and Guillou are the two most brilliant disciples of Marcel Dupré .

private Kleuker organ of La Besnardière. Amazing instrument !!

Jacques Picaud soon died of cancer. After the funeral, I was astonished to be taken aside by Jean- Jacques Grunenwald and Olivier Messiaen . It was Grunenwald who spoke: "Dear Olivier, you are very young. My colleague and I wish to help you in our own way. We will entrust you with the care of the instruments of St- Sulpice and La Trinité , but we ask you to invest yourself completely in your work! We will let you have a month to think about it."

After a month, I responded positively, and I knew I had friends I could count on and I creat "Sebire & Glandaz" company. Together, we spent 11 years at Saint-Sulpice for the two organs maintenance until I was totaly against the unbelievable bad project of restoration. The successor of J.J.Grunenwald was not disapointend by our work but he wanted to have a large company to restore this important instrument. I easely can understand it but I regret the work done during the last restoration. It would have been better if a large majority of the stops have not been recoived.

Later, I dismantled the Trinité choir organ and installed it on the ground floor near the altar. Messiaen was worried, wondering if this modest instrument wasn't going to sound even better than his large gallery organ. He was right to ask himself the question because the instrument rings superbly in its new located; its sound rises into the nave, a real delight. The organ in the loft had been perched a bit too high.

Numerous projects kept me busy. An enormous job in 1986 was the dismantling and restoration of the St- Augustin organ. This project was only a partial success as I had too much confidence in the extra workers I took on. Later, taking down the St- Eustache organ was a very interesting experience and allowed Van den Heuvel to install the new instrument we hear there today. The previous conception had been a disaster, but I remember the dismantling work with pleasure. Jobs became irregular. On Grunenwald's recomendation , I was hired by the Abbey of St-Laurent, city of Eu to restore a relatively mediocre organ, but which was enclosed in a case dating from 1614. This abbey is a historic site, an important fief of the Orleans family. I did not keep the position due to some strange events between the priest,  the woman choir director and the City, plus some concerns between the main organist with another organist of second plan.

My first important work was at Saint-Louis des Invalides Church with Beuchet-Debierre and Jacques Picaud for a complete restoration and install chamades. The same year we removed the Charles-Maris Widor personnal organ at Institut de France, quai Conti. After that we restored the Sainte-Trinité organ (Paris), then we have had an important work of cleaning at the Beuchet-Debierre organ of Saint-Marcel (Paris)

I found in my photos archives an interesting one I took of the Saint-Eustache organ case some days before I started to remove the complete instrument. On this picture we can see the chamades installed by Dunand. This was in 1986-1987 and we spent 4 months to remove everything, before Ven Den Heuvel installed the new instrument. This was a great but sad experience. And I am among the people who regret the old organ.

I took this picture in 1987 somedays before I removed the whole instrument

I spent over 20 years on the Louis Debierre organ at Saint-Lambert Church (Paris). This organ built in 1900 has an amazing sound, typically between the romantic and classical esthetic.

Jacques Picaud, François Sebire and me, often worked on the Cliquot-Cavaillé-Coll organ on the Saint-Louis Cathedral in Versailles. Beuchet-Debierre has installed some new chests for the high notes.

With the help of father James Prieux, I worked some years for the maintenance of the organ of the cathedral of Meaux, large instruments 77 stops - 5 manuals. Here I played a concert "voice & organ" with Macha Béranger and we had the luck to receive a great success. I played Vivaldi, Mahler, Wagner, Haendel, improvisations.

Each year Father James Prieux asked me to play for the AIDS day.

Before this concert at Meaux, I played a duet with the Messiaen's sister in law, Jeanne LORIOD at the cathedral of Angouleme. We had a small success, I was not in great form, I had an important eye concern but I keep a wonderful souvenir of these days at Angouleme.

Troyes

I had the opportunity to work on the tuning of the large organ of the cathedral of Troyes. This is an amazing Cliquot instrument. I love its famous reeds.

I'm very glad to work sometime with Bernard Dargassies, this is a real great pleasure.

Bernard at Saint Ambroise Church

Great Merklin organ

Inside la Madeline Church, Paris

Saint Ambroise - Merklin console

left: Positiv                                                Right:  Great

Merklin organ, inside the instrument

saint Ambroise, inside

it is a great pleasure for me to help Bernard Dargassies to work sometime on the

Saint-Louis d'Antin's organ, very nice Cavaillé-Coll instrument

I Leaved Sainte-Clotilde in 1990 following a desagreement with J.Langlais. It is now a great pleasure to help Bernard who did a fantastic work some years ago. Bernard installed a very nice 32' Bombarde, an interesting rank of chamade and a very nice Clarinette

The chamade took place on the balcony of the old console

The console is now installed at the lower level

Bernard Dargassies did a magnificent work on the Beuchet-Debierre console.

The console was restaured and enlarged

September 2007 - Bernard Dargassies has installed this very nice new nave console at Sainte-Clotilde, this is a magnificent work.