Hope College will present the Donia Organ Recital featuring Frederic Blanc on Tuesday, Feb. 3, at 7:30 p.m. in Dimnent Memorial Chapel.
The public is invited. Admission is free.
Originally from the southwest of France, Blanc began improvising at the piano and the organ very young, and discovered music. After his studies at the conservatories of Toulouse and Bordeaux, he continued perfecting his art with notable French organists André Fleury, Marie-Claire Alain and Marie-Madeleine Duruflé, of whom he became a devoted disciple.
He is the winner of several international competitions, and has earned honors including second prize in the 1996 Grand Prix de Chartres and the Grand Prize of the 1997 Paris International Organ Competition. He now has a busy career as an international concert artist, playing recitals as a solo artist or with orchestra, and as an accompanist.
In parallel he participates in or leads radio broadcasts, conferences and master classes throughout the United States and Europe, most recently at the Royal Academy of Music in London, on the subjects of French music and the art of improvisation. Among the American institutions at which he has recently given master classes are Valparaiso University in Indiana; Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif.; Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas; and the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, Pa.
The recital at Hope was made possible through the generous support of the college's Tom Donia Memorial Organ Fund. The fund was created in 1990 by family and friends of Tom Donia, a 1971 Hope graduate who died in 1990. The director of communications for the American Red Cross, Donia had a life-long interest in music.
Dimnent Memorial Chapel is located at 277 College Ave., on College Avenue at 12th Street.