Gaston Litaize, compositeur et organiste

Gaston Litaize
composer and organist

Gaston Litaize was born 11 August 1909 in Ménil-sur-Belvitte. He was blind from infancy, and was educated at the National Institution of the Blind. He later studied at the Paris Conservatory. He was also at this time a private pupil of Vierne. In 1938 he won the 2nd Prix de Rome, unprecedented at the time for a person without sight. He was appointed organist at the church of St-François Xavier in Paris in 1946; also was on the staff of the National Institution of the Blind. In the autumn of 1957 he made his first American tour as a concert organist. He composed a number of organ pieces and several sacred choral works, among them Messe solennelle en français (1966). He died in 1991.