Notre-Dame is not only a masterpiece of Gothic architecture but has also been a crucial venue in European music history since the early 1200s. It was home to the renowned Notre-Dame School, a group of musicians responsible for some of the earliest named composers in history, including Perotinus and Leoninus. In the preceding centuries of Gregorian chant, the creators of emerging melodies—monastic and ecclesiastical communities—did not consider it essential to attribute works to individual composers.
In the Middle Ages, polyphonic vocal genres were soon joined by organ music, with the first fully developed instrument built in 1334. The rise of independent organ music gained momentum during the Baroque era, and during this period, King Louis XV personally oversaw the renovation and expansion of the Notre-Dame organ. A significant portion of the organ pipes from the 15th century was preserved and remains in use to this day. The next major renovation took place in the 1860s, during which a young apprentice, later renowned Hungarian organ builder József Angster, participated in the project. Throughout the 20th century, the organ underwent multiple expansions, was electrified, and received a new console. The restoration in the 1990s required 28,000 work hours and a budget of $2 million. This monumental instrument—boasting 113 stops and five manuals—became a unique blend of musical eras. One of the cathedral’s former organists described it as follows:
"It holds the sound of pre-revolutionary taste, the symphonic orchestral tones of 19th-century Romantic ideals, and the character of 20th-century aesthetics. This instrument contains music spanning three to four centuries.
On April 15, 2019, a fire broke out at Notre-Dame Cathedral, but the organ miraculously survived the disaster. On December 7, 2024, during the grand reopening ceremony, the instrument was played by four distinguished musicians: Olivier Latry, Vincent Dubois, Thierry Escaich, and Thibault Fajoles.
Though Olivier Latry is not old (63), he has been serving at Notre-Dame since the mid-1980s and is also a professor of organ at the prestigious Paris Conservatoire. Alongside his church music and teaching responsibilities, he performs over a hundred solo concerts each year, cultivating a diverse and unmistakably unique repertoire. Bach is almost always present in his programs, signaling that the great German Baroque master remains the pinnacle of organ music. However, the backbone of his performances is formed by the largely forgotten works of French (Post)Romantic predecessors. Among these are Alexandre Guilmant (1837–1911), founder of the Schola Cantorum in Paris and a former professor at the Conservatoire; Louis Vierne (1870–1937), one of music history’s most exceptional blind composers, who served as Notre-Dame’s organist for over 35 years; and Marcel Dupré (1902–1986), Vierne’s assistant who became a renowned concert artist and composer in his own right.
Yet, the most captivating moments in Latry’s concerts are his own improvisations, where he ventures far beyond Baroque or Romantic themes, sometimes reaching into the realms of jazz or folk-inspired music. He frequently performs alongside his wife, the Korean-born organist Shin-Young Lee, and occasionally collaborates with actors and dancers to create interdisciplinary artistic productions.
