Jon Gillock - Olivier Messiaen: Prélude / Messe de la Pentecôte / l'Ascension (2017)

On January 15, 1974, Jon Gillock gave the New York premiere of Olivier Messiaen’s Méditations sur le Mystère de la Sainte Trinité at The Church of the Ascension. That single performance launched his career as a concert artist almost over night, giving performances of this work from coast to coast. The following year, he gave the first New York performance of Messiaen’s complete works for organ (the Livre du Saint Sacrement had not yet been written) in a series of five concerts. Soon afterward, he met Messiaen who invited Gillock to visit him in Paris. In 1977, Gillock went to Paris to study with his maître at the Paris Conservatory.

In 1978, Gillock performed the Méditations in the presence of the composer at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, New York, in a concert honoring Messiaen’s 70th birthday. This performance cemented a long friend­ship between the two. Messiaen later wrote to Gillock about this performance:

Again I remember with emotion your marvelous performance of my Méditations sur le Mys­tère de la Sainte Trinité in New York . . . I was infinitely touched by your wonderful interpretation: registration, touch, understanding — all were ideally beautiful. You will never know how much I admired your playing. Again thank you and bravo!!!

Later, in Claude Samuel’s 1986 book, Entretiens Avec Olivier Messiaen, Messiaen stated:
Certain ones [organists] play it better than me . . . there is the excellent American organist Jon Gillock in New York . . .

Press and public alike acclaim American organist Jon Gillock for his sensitive and moving performances. He is especially fond of performing the “French spiritual repertoire.” This includes the music of such composers as François Couperin, Maurice Duruflé, Nicolas de Grigny, César Franck, Charles Tournemire, Louis Vierne, and, of course, Olivier Messiaen and Johann Sebastian Bach.
Jon Gillock earned the BM and MM degrees at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville and the DMA at The Juilliard School in New York City. In addition to Messiaen, other important teachers were Weldon Marshall, John Cowell, and Vernon de Tar.

Gillock is especially known for his premieres of several of Messiaen’s works in New York City, across the United States, and in Japan. In addition to the first New York performance in 1975, he also gave the first Japan performance, in 2008 in Tokyo, of Messiaen’s complete organ works. He also gave many performances of Livre du Saint Sacrement from the composer’s manuscript before it was published. During 2008, he celebrated Mess­iaen’s centenary around the world with concerts, master­classes, and lectures. He has also given many concerts of Messiaen’s music in Paris at Eglise de la Sainte-­Trinité, where Messiaen was the organist. His book, Performing Messiaen’s Organ Music: 66 Masterclasses, was published by Indiana University Press in 2010. It has been acclaimed internationally for its importance among writings about these works.

Jon Gillock has established an international career not only as a performer but also as a master teacher. Now a resident of Paris, he has been a member of the organ faculties of both The Juilliard School and the Manhattan School of Music, and Montclair State University in Upper Montclair, New Jersey. From 2004 through 2009, he participated as Artist Faculty with Yuko Hayashi in the Boston Organ Academy. From 2011 to 2013, he served on the faculty, along with Dennis Keene, in the Ascension Organ Academy at The Church of the Ascension. He has also served as a jury member of international organ competitions.

Jon Gillock was named International Performer of the Year, 1999-2000, by the New York City Chapter of the American Guild of Organists. Among the awards he has received for his recordings are the Diapason d’Or and the 10 de Répertoire in France and the Preis der Deutschen Schallplatten Kritik in Germany. He is a member of the Artistic Committee of the Association Grand Orgue Trinité Messiaen, Eglise de la Sainte-Trinité, Paris.
In 2011, Gillock began recording Messiaen’s complete organ works on the Quoirin organ at The Church of the Ascension, the ideal organ for this project, specifically designed to play Messiaen. This album, Prélude, Messe de la Pentecôte, and L’Ascension, is the third in this series. Méditations sur le Mystère de la Sainte Trinité and Livre du Saint Sacrement are the first and second. Other albums will appear on the Raven label as they are completed.