Naji Hakim (original) (raw)

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Lebanese-French organist, composer and improviser (b. 1955)

Naji Hakim
ناجي حكيم
Born Naji Subhy Paul Irénée Hakim(1955-10-31)31 October 1955Beirut
Nationality Lebanese
Citizenship French, naturalised 1980
Education Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique
Alma mater Collège du Sacré Coeur de Beyrouth, Ecole Supérieur d'Ingénieurs de Beyrouth, Télécom ParisTech, Conservatoire de Paris
Occupations Organist Composer Improviser
Years active 1980–present
Organizations Sacré-Cœur, Paris (formerly)Église de la Sainte-Trinité, Paris (formerly)
Notable work Hommage à Igor Stravinsky, Memor, Gershwinesca, Le tombeau d'Olivier Messiaen, Pange Lingua, Ouverture Libanaise, Sindbad for orchestra
Spouse Marie-Bernadette Dufourcet Bocinos (m. 1980)
Children 2
Website najihakim.com

Naji Subhy Paul Irénée Hakim (Arabic: ناجي صبحي حكيم[1] [_Naji Sobhi Hakim_]; born 31 October 1955) is a Franco-Lebanese[2] organist, composer, and improviser.

He studied the organ under Jean Langlais at the Conservatoire de Paris, and succeeded Olivier Messiaen as titular organist at the Église de la Sainte-Trinité, Paris, holding this position from 1993 to 2008. Before this, he was titular organist at the Sacré-Cœur basilica in the same city from 1985 to 1993, succeeding Daniel Roth.

Hakim's numerous improvisations and compositions for organ, orchestra, and other instruments have received renown. His works have been published by Schott Music, UMP, Combre, Éditions Alphonse Leduc, ABRSM, Fitzsimons, Éditions Gérard Billaudot, and American Carillon.

Naji Subhy Paul Irénée Hakim was born into a Catholic family on 31 October 1955 in Beirut, Lebanon; to a businessman father, Subhy (died 2022), and his wife Katy Hakim. His Christian name is Paul.[3]

His family were music-loving: his father played the mandolin and sang; his mother is an amateur pianist, and he and his three siblings also studied a variety of instruments of different types. Before the organ, Hakim studied the cello.[4][5]

When he was five, he heard a pipe organ in his school, the Collège du Sacré-Coeur of Beirut. The instrument was built by Debierre-Gloton. Impressed by its sound, Hakim asked his mother two years later to get him a piano, to which she obliged. From then on, Hakim received his first piano lessons from his mother, who self-taught.

His brother, Amine, noticed the then-9 year old Hakim's enthusiasm for the organ and helped him break into the organ loft at the college. Naji was able to pull out all of the organ's stops before playing a single note. Frightened by the sound, the two brothers ran away. The school director took notice of the incident and ordered for the loft to be re-secured.[6][7][8]

Hakim, who received permission to practise for half an hour every week (and later received unlimited access to the organ loft, chapel, and campus of the school for practising, under the consent of a new director), then taught himself the organ by using the method books of Jacques-Nicolas Lemmens, Harold Gleason and Marcel Dupré. He would later give his first recital in this chapel aged 15. A year later, he would later master the third of Dupré's Trois préludes et fugues, op. 7, and César Franck's First Chorale in E major.

Many had noticed the young man's prodigiousness in the organ and talent for music, however, due to the prompting of his father, Hakim, aged 16, entered the Ecole Supérieure d'Ingénieurs de Beyrouth in 1972. He was advised that a musical career in Lebanon would have not been suitable by the present circumstances. The outbreak of the Lebanese Civil War in 1975, which caused the closure of his engineering school, forced him to flee to Paris in autumn of that year, where he completed his studies at Télécom in 1977.[7]

He also took up a position as substitute organist at Sainte-Odile in Paris and prepared to enter the Conservatoire de Paris, failing the entrance examinations in 1976. Hakim then met Jean Langlais (1907–1991), organist of Sainte-Clotilde and an esteemed composer and organist, and began private lessons in organ playing and improvisation[9][10][11] with him in a relationship that lasted about ten years.[8] With his newfound friendship and encouragement, he was able to enter the conservatoire the following year; where he obtained seven first prizes in organ performance, organ improvisation, harmony, counterpoint, fugue, analysis, and orchestration.[9]

Hakim 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); as well as that of Langlais himself (organ).[11]

Professional career: 1980–2019

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He was appointed as titular organist of the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur, Paris in 1985, succeeding Daniel Roth. He left in 1993 when he succeeded Olivier Messiaen after the latter's death at the Église de la Sainte-Trinité, Paris, from 1993 until 2008.[12][13] 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.[9][10]

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.[9][14]

Despite retiring from the academic scene, Hakim remains an active professional concert organist today.

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.[15] 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.[15] 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.[16][10]

He currently lives in Bayonne with his wife Marie-Bernadette Dufourcet (who he married in 1980), annually visits his homeland of Lebanon, and composes regularly.

They have two children, Jean-Paul, who has followed in his footsteps as a composer, and Katia-Sofia, a musicologist and poet.

Hakim is a polyglot and speaks six languages: French, Arabic, English, Basque, Spanish, and German.

Hakim began composing in 1983.

Organ with other instruments

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Orchestral and concertos

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Other instruments and chamber music

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  1. ^ Hakim, Naji. "Biography in Arabic". Archived from the original on 2023-02-05. Retrieved 2022-09-11.
  2. ^ Hakim, Naji. "Twitter Account".
  3. ^ Hakim, Naji. "Saul de Tarse (oratorio)".
  4. ^ Hanhivaara, Elina (November 2001). "Music – with love / Musiikkia – rakkaudella". Naji Hakim.
  5. ^ "Interview with Naji Hakim".
  6. ^ Pipedreams. "Naji Hakim of Paris".
  7. ^ a b Hernandez 2005, p. 1.
  8. ^ a b Kim, Sung Hee (May 2015). Te Deum by Naji Hakim: historical background and structural analysis (PDF) (DMA). Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. Retrieved 13 August 2020.
  9. ^ a b c d Benford, Alexander Elliott (2018). Popular Idioms in Select Organ Works of Naji Hakim, Jon Laukvik, and Wolf-Günter Leidel (PDF) (DMA). University of Alabama. Retrieved 13 August 2020.
  10. ^ a b c Lee, Hye-Young (2006). Tracing Messiaen in Naji Hakim's Le Tombeau d'Olivier Messiaen (PDF) (DMA). University of North Texas. Retrieved 13 August 2020.
  11. ^ a b c d "Naji Hakim". Schott Music (in German). Retrieved 13 August 2020.
  12. ^ Rink, Ludwig (14 April 2006). "An den Orgeln von Paris". Deutschlandfunk.
  13. ^ Wohlberg, Tara (20 March 2003). "Organist specializes in improvisation". The Vancouver Sun. Vancouver. p. 68. Retrieved 13 August 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ^ "Naji Hakim". United Music Publishing. Retrieved 13 August 2020.
  15. ^ a b Aeolus. "Naji Hakim". aeolus-music.com. Retrieved 13 August 2020.
  16. ^ "Eröffnungskonzert mit Naji Hakim". Augsburger Allgemeine (in German). Augsburg. 17 September 2007. Retrieved 13 August 2020.
  17. ^ "Pange lingua (1996)". United Music Publishers. 2003. Archived from the original on 19 November 2009. Retrieved 29 July 2010.
  18. ^ Javadova, Jamila (October 2007). "Invocation of Joy, Glory and Greatness" (PDF). The American Organist. Retrieved 13 August 2020.
  19. ^ "Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern". Schott Music.
  20. ^ A 500 Year Organ Journey – Organ and Orchestra Music from Baroque to Modern – Programme Notes, p14, Muscat Royal: Opera House Muscat, 24 Feb 2019