On Saturday March 18, the spiritual musical break “Organ at noon”, scheduled between 12 p.m. and 12:30 p.m. at the cathedral of Nîmes, will be provided by the concert organist and composer Grégoire Rolland, titular organist of the cathedral of Aix-en-Provence and professor of composition, orchestration and writing at the regional conservatory of Avignon.
Composer and organist, Grégoire Rolland obtained a Master’s degree in writing (harmony, counterpoint, fugue), an analysis prize, a Master’s degree in organ and an orchestration prize at the National Conservatory of Music in Paris. He also holds a Master’s degree in composition from the Geneva University of Music and a degree in music and musicology from the Sorbonne.
During his graduate studies, he had the opportunity to work with Olivier Latry, Michel Bouvard (organ), Fabien Waksman (harmony), Pierre Pincemaille (counterpoint), Thierry Escaich (fugue and forms, improvisation), Philippe Lefebvre (improvisation ), Michael Lévinas (analysis), Marc-André Dalbavie, Denis Cohen (orchestration), and even Pascal Dusapin and Michaël Jarrell (composition).
At Saint-Castor’s Cathedral.
Composing both for solo instruments and for orchestra, he is essentially inspired by three elements: the Gregorian, nature, and the contribution of the Asian culture that fascinates him. He also works on the relationship between music and the other arts, mixing expressiveness and elaboration techniques (relation to rhetoric, writing, painting or photography). For several years, he has been developing a composition technique that combines the temporality of the writing of Asian ideograms and the deployment of inherent musical forms.
He received several composition prizes at the composition competitions of Saint-Bertrand de Comminges, Évreux, the Lacour Foundation, the Caen orchestra. Many institutions have commissioned him, such as Sacred Music at Notre-Dame de Paris, the Lacour Foundation, the choir and orchestra of the International University Campus in Paris, the The Very Rich Hours of the Organ in BerryToulouse les orgues, Radio France, Sylvanès abbey, the festival The building Geneva, the Chaillol Festival, the New Horizons Festival, Sacred Music in Avignon, the Sequenza 9.3 vocal ensemble, the Dulci Jubilo chamber choir…
Organ at noon Grégoire Rolland (Photo Friends of the organs of the cathedral of Nîmes and Guillaume Estève, the Labo) • Organ at noon Grégoire Rolland (Photo Amiis of the organs of the cathedral of Nîmes)
His works have been heard in Europe (France, Switzerland, Belgium, England, Spain, Germany, Austria, …), in the United States, as well as in Japan. They are performed by many renowned artists such as Pierre Bleuse, Philippe Brocard, Alphonse Cemin, Jean Deroyer, the Quatuor Girard, Wolgang Kogert, Olivier Latry, David Molard, Raphaëlle Moreau, Thierry Maeder, Marie-Ange Nguci, Thomas Ospital, Maxime Pascal, Tobias Willi…
Acclaimed in recital on many stages both abroad and in France, he is the 2016 laureate of the Banque Populaire Foundation. Appointed in March 2018 as titular organist of the cathedral of Aix, he is also professor of composition, orchestration and writing at the CRR of Avignon.
The organ of the cathedral of Nîmes (Photo Anthony Maurin Archives).
In 2020, he won the 1st prize in the composition competition of the Vienna Cathedral (Austria), and made his first discographic recording as a composer and organist. In 2021, the Academy of Fine Arts awarded him the encouragement prize in musical composition. In 2022, the Dulci Jubilo chamber choir conducted by Christopher Gibert and Thomas Ospital recorded their pieces for choir and organ in a new album produced by Anima Nostra: Sheng.
Anthony Maurin
