Susan Landale

After graduating from Edinburgh University (BMus), where she was awarded a number of prizes and scholarships, she was invited by the great French organist André Marchal to study with him in Paris. The following year she was appointed titular organist of St George’s Anglican Church, Paris, a post she held for 18 years. Today, from her home in the Paris suburbs, she pursues a many-sided career of concert organist, church organist and professor.

Winner of the first International Organ Playing Competition at the St Alban's International Festival, England, she has established a worldwide reputation as a brilliant concert artist in solo recitals, broadcasts on national and international radio networks and television, concerts with orchestra, chamber music and in performances with instrumental and vocal ensembles. She has appeared as a guest artist at many festivals as far apart as Melbourne, Reykjavik, St. Albans, Calgary and Edinburgh.

She has been a featured soloist with many of the leading orchestras in Paris, London, Prague, Hamburg, Heidelberg and other European cities. Her numerous CD recordings of the works of Olivier Messiaen, Louis Vierne, Charles Tournemire and César Franck have received international acclaim and the highest awards from the French critics.

Susan is a Visiting Professor of Organ at the Royal Academy of Music, after many years as professor at the National Regional Conservatoire in Rueil-Malmaison (Ile de France), where her pupils, from all over the world, won prizes in many national and international competitions. She devotes the rest of her time to concert performance, and recordings, presenting seminars and masterclasses as well as private teaching. She has served on the most prestigious international juries: St Albans, Calgary, Chartres, Prague, Odense, Lübeck, Warsaw and Brno.

She is an active member of the Committee of the Grand Prix de Chartres, and is Artistic Director of the Biarritz International Organ Competition, run by the Académie André Marchal. Author of several articles on contemporary music, her studies of the organ works of Olivier Messiaen and Petr Eben have been translated into several languages. Her interpretation of the most significant works of these composers is considered to be particularly authentic.

Susan is organist co-titulaire of the Cathedral Saint-Louis des Invalides, Paris.In recognition of her world-wide career and commitment, she has received various awards and distinctions, including those of Fellow honoris causa of the Royal College of Organists in 2003, Honorary Associate of the Royal Academy of Music in 2009, and the Médaille de Mérite Diocésaine of the Archdiocese of Paris in 2013.