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Thomas Lacôte
Orgue
Thomas Lacôte enjoys prominent stature within the young generation of French organists. Appointed by competition at age 20 as organist of the cathedral of Bourges, in 2011 he became assistant titulaire of the main organ at the church of the Trinity in Paris, an organ loft that Olivier Messiaen occupied for more than 60 years. His multifarious musical activities – composition, performance, improvisation, teaching and also musicological research – have made of him an all-round musician bringing together practise, research and creation. Born in 1982, he was trained at the Conservatories of Poitiers and Saint Maur des Fossés, and eventually at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse in Paris, where he garnered five premiers prix with honors between 2003 and 2006 and a Diploma in High-Level Training with a major in research-creation-composition. He was a student of such diverse personalities as Éric Lebrun, Louis Robilliard, Olivier Latry, Philippe Lefebvre, Jean-François Zygel, Michaël Levinas and Marc-André Dalbavie. Invited to participate in concert within many countries of Europe, in his programmes he mingles repertory, contemporary music and improvisation. Today his activities as a composer are taking on increasing importance: the organ, approached from a markedly original angle, has a crucial place therein, as does vocal music. He responds to commissions from Radio-France, the Feldkirch Festival (Austria), Musique sacrée à Notre-Dame de Paris, and also from several conservatories. His works are performed in particular by the organists Ghislain Leroy, Tobias Willi, Martin Tembremande, Angèle Dionnau, Yoann Tardivel, Pascale Rouet, Francesco Filidei, the saxophonists Lars Mlekusch and Antonino Mollica, the Aedes Vocal Ensemble (dir. Mathieu Romano), the Maîtrise Notre-Dame de Paris (dir. Lionel Sow)… Several of his works are available from the publisher Gérard Billaudot Éditeur. With the musicologists Yves Balmer and Christopher Murray, he is pursuing an extensive project devoted to renewing study of the composition techniques of Olivier Messiaen. Presented in several international symposiums, it has yielded the creation of a forthcoming book awarded the support of the Fondation des Treilles and the Bourse des Muses. Other studies on 20th-century organ music have come out in various reviews. Thomas Lacôte teaches analysis and theory at the Paris Conservatory (CNSM, where since 2008 he has been an assistant in the Analysis class of Michaël Levinas), at the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional in Aubervilliers-La Courneuve.