Pierre Cochereau

Pierre Eugène Charles Cochereau (9 July 1924 – 6 March 1984) was a French organist, improviser, composer, and pedagogue.

Cochereau was titular organist of the cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris from 1955 to his death in 1984 and was responsible for a controversial renovation of the cathedral's organ in the 1960s. He was greatly renowned as an improviser and organist in his lifetime and still is today.

After his death, the Conservatory of Nice was renamed in his honour. Pierre Cochereau was born on 9 July 1924 in the French commune of Saint-Mandé (Val-de-Marne), near the capital city of Paris. His father, Georges Ernest Cochereau, was a wealthy factory owner who owned a shoemaking factory. In 1929, after a few months of violin instruction, he began to take piano lessons with Marius-François Gaillard. Marguerite Long became his piano teacher in 1933, and three years later, Paul Pannesay. When Cochereau was 13 years old, after suffering a year of poor health and poor performance in school, Cochereau's father sent him to recuperate in a village in the South of France. Cochereau was allowed the key to the local church so he could practise piano, however one day he discovered a 2 manual pipe organ by Cavaillé-Coll. The church's titular organist agreed to show him the instrument on 2 June 1937, which was coincidentally the day that Louis Vierne, the then-organist of Notre-Dame-de-Paris, died at the console of the organ during his 1750th organ recital. Some viewed this as an 'apostolic succession', as Cochereau would hold the exact same post 18 years later.

In 1938, Cochereau took lessons with Marie-Louise Girod, a student of Marcel Dupré. He continued his organ studies with André Fleury and Paul Delafosse, whom Cochereau succeeded as titular organist at Saint-Roch in Paris in 1942.

After one year of law studies, Cochereau decided to dedicate himself to a musical career, and entered the Conservatory of Paris in 1943. He left the Conservatory in 1949 with first prizes in harmony (class of Maurice Duruflé) - alongside Pierre Labric, music history, fugue and counterpoint (class of Noël Gallon), composition (class of Tony Aubin), and organ (class of Marcel Dupré).

In September 1948, Cochereau made his first recital tour to Hungary. One year later, he married Nicole Lacroix, a pianist and composer, with whom he had two children: Jean-Marc (1949–2011), conductor and late director of the Tours Conservatory, and Marie-Pierre, a professional harpist.

In 1949, at age 26, Pierre Cochereau was appointed director of the Le Mans Conservatory, a term he occupied for seven years. In 1955, he succeeded Léonce de Saint-Martin (1886–1954) as titular organist at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, after applying to the post just days before the deadline. However, a delay occurred, due to Cochereau's failure to provide a home address.

In 1956, his recording of Marcel Dupré's Symphonie-Passion, Op. 23 was awarded the Grand Prix du Disque. The same year, Cochereau made his first of 25 recital tours to the United States, producing a CD of music played at Notre-Dame, as well as an improvised symphony at Boston Symphony Hall.

In 1961, Cochereau became director of the Nice Conservatory (the conservatoire now bears his name), which he left in 1979, accepting the directorship of the Lyon Conservatory.