Flor Peeters

Belgian composer Baron Flor Peeters (1903 – 1986) was one of the most famous organists among the twentieth-century composers. He started playing the organ from a very young age, his father being an organist in his hometown of Tielen. Peeters studied at the at the Lemmens Institute in Mechelen, now incorporated into Antwerp. Instead of eight, it took Peeters mere four years to graduate the complete course which made him the youngest winner of the Lemmens-Tinel Award in the school's history. At the age of 22, following the death of his teacher Oscar Depuydt, Peeters took his place as an organist at Saint Rombouts Church and began teaching at the Lemmens Institute (1923-1952). From 1931 to 1948 led the organ class at the Royal Conservatory of Ghent, in 1935 became teacher of organ and improvisation at the Roman Catholic College in Tilburg (Netherlands), and from 1948 to 1968 taught at the Royal Flemish Conservatory of Music in Antwerp. Peeters has trained hundreds of organists who worked with him in Belgium and during his annual master classes in the United States. In 1952 published his three-volume extensive organ method Ars Organi (1952). He is the compiler and editor of collections of organ pieces by old Flemish masters. A prolific composer, Peeters created more than 130 pieces for organ alone, professing also a strong affinity for choral music. His style, introverted and meditative, is marked by captivating imagination. Peeters' musical language evolved from his reverence for César Franck's late-romantic organ tradition, through neoclassicism, polytonality and serialism. He is also known as an erudite expert of ancient Gregorian music.