Daniel
Roth
Biography
Daniel Roth has been
widely acclaimed as one of the leading French organ virtuosos, and has held
several prestigious positions as an artist and teacher. At age twenty he made his debut at the organ
of the Basilique du Sacré
Coeur in
A former student at the
Paris Conservatory, his teachers have included
From 1974 to 1976 Daniel
Roth held the position of Artist-in-Residence of the National Shrine of the
Immaculate Conception in Washington DC.
Upon his return to
Renowned for his brilliant interpretations of organ literature and for his thrilling improvisations which are regularly included in his concert programs, Daniel Roth has concertized extensively throughout Europe, Great Britain, The United States, Scandinavia, Japan and Korea. In addition to his regular tours, he has come to North America on several occasions as guest artist for various conventions: the Third International Congress of Organists (Washington DC and Philadelphia), the national convention of the Royal Canadian College of Organists (Montreal) and the national convention of The American Guild of Organists held in Detroit. He has also served as visiting artist/instructor at Yale University, where he gave private lessons, presented a lecture and performed a recital at Woolsey Hall.
Mr. Roth has earned the Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur, Officier des Arts et Letters, and he was named an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Organists. In July 2006 he was awarded the “Europäische Kirchenmusik” prize by the Europäische Kirchenmusik Festival in Schwäbisch-Gmünd, Germany. Other musicians who have received this prize include Krystof Penderecki, Arvo Pärt, and Petr Eben.
A prolific composer as well as performer, Mr. Roth has written works for organ solo, flute and organ, choir and organ, orchestra, and for piano, organ and orchestra. He has also composed three transcriptions for organ: Rédemption and Symphonie en ré mineur by César Franck, and Scherzo (from Six Duos for Harmonium and Piano) by Camille St-Saëns, which are published by Leduc, Delatour, Schott-Mainz, Bärenreiter, Novello, Association Boëllmann-Gigout, Butz (Bonn), and Joubert (Paris). Several Daniel Roth works have been commissioned by Kenneth Star in Boston, Philip Brunelle in Minneapolis, the towns of Ingolstadt and Ludwigshafen (Germany), the Music Festival San Sebastian, Spain, and the Festival of Dudelange (Luxembourg), and are available on CD and DVD. In January of 1999, he was honored with a concert entirely dedicated to his compositions at the Church of the Madeleine in Paris. Later that year he was awarded the Prix Florent Schmitt by the Institut de France, Académie des Beaux-Arts for his compositions. In 2004 the city of Ludwigshafen commissioned him to compose a work for orchestra; the tone poem Licht im Dunkel, which received its world premiere in May 2005 performed by the Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, under the baton of Daniel Roth’s son François-Xavier Roth. Its first performance in Paris took place the following year during the St-Etienne-du Mont Festival. Mr. Roth later added a second and third movement to turn Licht im Dunkel into a Tryptique for piano, organ and orchestra (I L’Espérance; II L’Amour; III La Joie). “La Joie” was premiered in 2008 during the César Franck-Tage-Philharmonie Essen (Germany) conducted by Emmanuel Plasson. The complete Tryptique, now published by Schott, will receive its world premiere on April 18, 2010, during the dedication of the new Metzler organ in the Church of Saint Anne in Düren, Germany (near Köln).
Daniel Roth has numerous recordings to his credit from companies of JAV Recordings, Erato, Philips, Arion, Pathé-Marconi, EMI, Wergo, Motette-Ursina, Priory and Aeolus. He has won several “Diapason d’Or” from the French magazine Diapason.
Current as of August 2009