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Marie-Claire Alain (born August 10, 1926) is a French organist and organ teacher best known for her prolific recording career. She is particularly known for her ability to perform substantial works entirely from memory.

Contents 1 Background and education 2 Musical career 3 Awards 4 External links

[edit] Background and education

Marie-Claire Alain was born in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, near Paris. Her father, Albert Alain (1880-1971) was an organist and composer, as were her brothers, Jehan (1911-1940) and Olivier (1918-1994). Alain studied in the Paris Conservatory, in the organ class of Marcel Dupré, where she was awarded four first prizes.[1]

[edit] Musical career

Alain has recorded the complete works of J.S. Bach three separate times, and has also recorded the complete works of over a dozen other major composers for the organ, as well as many individual important works. She is the most-recorded organist in the world,^{[citation needed]} with over 260 recordings in her catalogue.

Alain has had a long association with the St Albans International Organ Festival.

[edit] Awards

• Sonning Award (1980; Denmark)

[edit] External links

• Marie-Claire Alain at Allmusic
• Interview with Marie-Claire Alain at The Organ magazine
• Short conversation with Marie-Claire Alain Organ Month Haarlem, 1988

v • d • e Léonie Sonning Music Prize Laureates 1959–1980 Igor Stravinsky (1959) · Leonard Bernstein (1965) · Birgit Nilsson (1966) · Witold Lutosławski (1967) · Benjamin Britten (1968) · Boris Christoff (1969) · Sergiu Celibidache (1970) · Arthur Rubinstein (1971) · Yehudi Menuhin (1972) · Dmitri Shostakovich (1973) · Andrés Segovia (1974) · Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (1975) · Mogens Wöldike (1976) · Olivier Messiaen (1977) · Jean-Pierre Rampal (1978) · Janet Baker (1979) · Marie-Claire Alain (1980) 1981–2000 Mstislav Rostropovich (1981) · Isaac Stern (1982) · Rafael Kubelík (1983) · Miles Davis (1984) · Pierre Boulez (1985) · Sviatoslav Richter (1986) · Heinz Holliger (1987) · Peter Schreier (1988) · Gidon Kremer (1989) · György Ligeti (1990) · Eric Ericson (1991) · Georg Solti (1992) · Nikolaus Harnoncourt (1993) · Krystian Zimerman (1994) · Yuri Bashmet (1995) · Per Nørgård (1996) · András Schiff (1997) · Hildegard Behrens (1998) · Sofia Gubaidulina (1999) · Michala Petri (2000) 2001–present Anne-Sophie Mutter (2001) · Alfred Brendel (2002) · György Kurtág (2003) · Keith Jarrett (2004) · John Eliot Gardiner (2005) · Yo-Yo Ma (2006) · Lars Ulrik Mortensen (2007) · Arvo Pärt (2008) · Daniel Barenboim (2009)

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