Meet Marie-France Heckmann, Monegasque’s new organist, from Alsace
Marie-France Heckmann, Monaco Cathedral's new organist, taming the "Monster" © Monaco Tribune / Théo Briand
Marie-France Heckmann has been an organist since she was little girl, and had been playing at Masses in Alsace for 37 years, prior to taking up the position of substitute organist at Monaco Cathedral in May 2024. We met up with of one of the few female organists.
Every love affair begins with an encounter. For Marie-France Heckmann, that encounter took place in church. “I remember very well when I was young we would go to the patron saint’s day in my mum’s parish, and there would always be an organist playing Bach’s famous Toccata in D minor.” It was a revelation for Marie-France: “It’s so beautiful,” she remembers thinking, “I’d love to play that instrument!”
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However, it’s not always easy to find an organ teacher. Marie-France Heckmann started out on a piano, then practised on an electronic organ, but it just doesn’t feel the same. Fortunately for the budding organist, a teacher was found when she was 14.
Originally from Alsace, which she recently left to come to Monaco, Marie-France still remembers her first lessons: they were in October, when temperatures in the region’s cold churches were between 5 and 10°C at that time of year. This is in stark contrast to Monaco Cathedral, where the temperature is close to 30°C in August.
Barely two months after her first lesson, the village organist thrust her into the limelight. “The organist, who was very old, said ‘you can take over!’ ” Marie-France remembers. In no time at all, the young organist found herself playing on the first Sunday of Advent. “At least I didn’t have to play the Gloria, which would probably have been a challenge for me as a beginner.”
Marie-France continued to studiously pursue her organ lessons, but it was only six years later that she auditioned for the historic Silbermann organ at the Jesuit church in Molsheim. At the end of the audition, the choirmaster and organist invited her to play for the church services. By a happy coincidence, mass in Marie-France’s village is at 8.45 am and in Molsheim at 10.30 am, just enough time for her to play at home and then nip over to Molsheim to fill the church and the hearts of the congregation with her playing.
“When you enjoy what you do, you don’t keep score” And so it was that the congregations of Molsheim and her own village were able to enjoy Marie-France Heckmann’s talent for 37 years.
Heading south
As with her entire life and all her projects, her move to Monaco was down to a combination of circumstances and certainly also talent, even though the modest and good-natured Marie-France Heckmann wouldn’t like to admit to that.
While the Molsheim organ was being re-tuned in 2018, head organist Marie-France Heckmann decided to take a little holiday in the sun, in Nice. During her stay in the south, she made enquiries and discovered the organ in Monaco. The idea of playing it didn’t occur to her, but she did want to see it up close.
She managed to get the email address of Olivier Vernet, Monaco’s organist, through one of her organist friends, Thierry Mechler. As luck would have it, he had already played at Molsheim. However he was away during Marie-France’s visit, so it was Marc Giacone, a Monegasque composer and head organist on the Cavaillé-Coll organ in the Chapelle des Carmes who welcomed her. She remembers the encounter very precisely: 4 January 2019, at 3 pm.
And she was given the chance to play while she was there. “I was a bit thrown at first, because my instrument in Molsheim had 22 stops and two keyboards. In Monaco, there are 84 stops, 4 keyboards, and a coupler with 29,999 possibilities,” says the organist. “It’s like being both the conductor and the musician,” she adds.
As she was leaving, Marc Giacone asked her to come back and give a concert in Monaco. “The little girl from Alsace,” couldn’t believe it, but was persuaded a few days later to perform a concert on 22 June 2019, as part of the In Tempore Organi Festival, on the Sainte-Dévote church organ.
A golden opportunity
When Silvano Rudi, head organist at Sainte-Dévote, told her that he was retiring, Marie-France thought: “Why not add a new experience to my life? I’ve just turned fifty, so maybe it’s time to try something new.”
So she applied to replace him, and in the meantime learned that Father Daniel was looking for a new deputy organist at Monaco Cathedral. “So suddenly I’ve got two possible jobs!” Tied for first place in the recruitment process with another candidate, she was hired “to scale the Rock.”
“When I took up my first position as organist in my village, it was a bit of an emergency. I answered the call. They needed me at Molsheim, too.” And you could say the same is true with Monaco, as Marie-France Heckmann is taking on the role on the fly. Having only arrived in May 2024, she admits with a smile that “there are a lot of people in Alsace who don’t even know I’m here yet.”
“It’s a great honour to be able to play here and to serve the cathedral parish of the Principality of Monaco, while working closely with the incumbents Olivier, Jean-Cyril, the cathedral master and the ‘Petits chanteurs’. I have to pinch myself,” she says.
A little touch of Alsace
“I’ve been playing a baroque organ for 32 years now, so I’m a bit unusual. Baroque is sort of my speciality.” It was an opportunity for the organist, as an admirer of Bach, to develop her field of expertise by moving into romantic and symphonic music, which the Monaco organ allows.
She believes music is a means of serving the liturgy, and it was both the spiritual and artistic aspects of the organ that immediately appealed to her. Music “embellishes the liturgy and lifts the soul of the believer.” “Music in general makes us feel good, and music therapy exists for a reason,” she adds, “I can pass this happiness on to the people who hear me play. There’s communion in that.”
Another string to her bow is Marie-France Heckmann’s singing: “during my Marian vigils, I sing and accompany myself. I’ve already performed during masses when the cantor or choir were absent.”
The Monster of Monaco
A particularly impressive instrument, Monaco’s organ can do almost anything. The “Monster” nickname is due to its extraordinary size. Suspended in the void of the nave, the organ has 4 manuals (keyboards), 84 stops and around 7,000 pipes.
For the new organ, inaugurated in 2011, some of the parts from the previous instrument were reused in the ‘Monster’.
The ‘light show’ is hard to miss, and again makes this organ a unique instrument of its kind, a world first in fact. You can adjust the lights to suit, and even turn them off so as to better admire the beautiful wood. Marie-France tells us that she particularly likes blue for the Blessed Virgin, and for weddings.
“Being here, right now, is just incredible. My aim is to serve the liturgy, my parish and make a living from what I love doing, while sharing the enjoyment of playing music at concerts or services,” she concludes.