Naji Hakim
Naji Subhy Paul Irénée Hakim (born 31 October 1955) is a Lebanese-French organist, composer, and improviser. He studied under Jean Langlais, and succeeded Olivier Messiaen as titular organist at the Église de la Sainte-Trinité, Paris. Biography. Hakim was born in Beirut, Lebanon. He 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's 'Méthode d'orgue' and  Harold 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 the Lebanese Civil War. Hakim privately studied organ and improvisation with Jean Langlais (1907–1991). The relationship with Langlais lasted for about ten years. With Jean Langlais's encouragement, he entered the Conservatoire de 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, succeeding Daniel Roth; when he succeeded Olivier Messiaen after the latter's death at the Église de la Sainte-Trinité, Paris, from 1993 until 2008. He serves as Professor of Musical Analysis at the Conservatoire National de Région de Boulogne-Billancourt, and visiting professor of organ, improvisation, analysis, and composition at the Royal Academy of Music, London. Hakim's compositional output includes instrumental music, symphonic music, and choral music. His works for the organ  includes more than three dozen solo pieces, a number of works for organ and other instruments, and four organ concertos with orchestra. Awards. Hakim 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 prizes at the International Organ Competitions held in Beauvaiss (1981), Haarlem (1982), Lyon, Nuremberg, St. Albans (1983) (where he has since served on the jury), Chartres (1984), Strasbourg, and Rennes.