André Isoir

Who is André Isoir?

André Isoir is a renowned French organist.

Isoir studied with Édouard Souberbielle and Germaine Mounier at the École César-Franck and under Rolande Falcinelli at the Paris Conservatoire where he won the first prizes in organ and improvisation in 1960.

Thereafter he won several international organ competitions. In 1965 he won the competition in St Albans. And, in three successive years, he won the competition in Haarlem, earning the "Challenge Award," the only French interpreter to have achieved this distinction since the inception of the competition in 1951.

André Isoir was organist titulaire at St-Médard in Paris from 1952 to 1967 and at St. Severin in 1967. Since 1973 he has been titulaire at the ancient Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés in Paris.

In 1974 Isoir was appointed to the organ staff at the Conservatoire d'Orsay, in 1977 promoted to the rank of National School of Music. He became a full professor in January 1978 and remained at Orsay until 1983, when he was appointed to the Conservatoire National de Region de Boulogne-Billancourt, where he taught organ until 1994.

Isoir has recorded some sixty discs, notably for Calliope.