naji hakim

Naji Hakim was introduced to the organ during his elementary school studies at the Collège du Sacré-Cœur in Beirut. He began with private piano lessons, but when he was nine or ten years old, he began work on his own at the organ using various methods such as Marcel Dupré and Gleason. In 1975, he moved to Paris to finish his engineering studies at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications since the Ecole Supérieure d’Ingénieurs de Beirut in Lebanon closed because of war. He continued his organ studies in performance and improvisation with the famous French organist-improviser-composer Jean Langlais (1907–1991). Hakim worked with Jean Langlais for about ten years, and Langlais became like a second father to him: very encouraging and demanding. With Jean Langlais’s encouragement, he entered the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris where he obtained seven first prizes in organ performance, organ improvisation, harmony, counterpoint, fugue, analysis, and orchestration. He was in the classes of Rolande Falcinelli (organ and improvisation), Roger Boutry (harmony), Jean-Claude Henry (counterpoint), Marcel Bitsch (fugue), Jacques Castérède (analysis) and Serge Nigg (orchestration). He was the organist of the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur, Paris from 1985 until 1993, when he succeeded Olivier Messiaen at the Église de la Sainte-Trinité, Paris, from 1993 until 2008. Hakim has composed works for organ, two organs, organ duo, and organ with other instruments, as well as orchestral and concerto works, solo instrumental and chamber works, and vocal works. He has won many awards for performance, improvisation, and composition. For example, his Symphonie en Trois Mouvements won the composition prize of the “Amis de l'Orgue” in 1984. The Embrace of Fire won first prize in 1986 in the International Organ Competition in memory of Anton Heiller, at Southern Missionary College in Collegedale, Tennessee. In addition, he was awarded the Prix de Composition Musicale André Caplet from the Académie des Beaux Arts in 1991. He has also been the recipient of first prizes at the International Organ Competitions held in Haarlem, Beauvais, Lyon, Nuremberg, St. Albans (where he has since served on the jury), Strasbourg, and Rennes.