Boëllmann, Léon (1862, 1897)

Léon Boellmann (1862-1897) displayed even as a child extraordinary musical gifts and was accepted at the age of nine into the École Niedermeyer in Paris, where his teachers included his uncle Eugène Gigout and Gustave Lefèvre. He received excellent marks in every subject as well as a diploma as organist and choir director, which brought him his first post as organist in St. Vincent de Paul in Paris (1881).



After the death of his parents Gigout became his adoptive father, and Boellmann assisted him in his newly founded school for organ, improvisation and Gregorian chant. Boellmann wrote under a pseudonym for the magazine "Art Musical." As pianist and organist he concertized not only in France but in the rest of Europe.



His compositions include works for organ and piano as well as chamber music, songs and sacred choral works. His most well known and most often played work today is his "Suite gothique pour Grand Orgue op. 25."