BIOGRAPHY

Originally Copt of Egypt and born in a musician family, Lydia Sourial had started her musical studies at the age of 6 years at the E.N.M. (school music) in Annecy, France. Then she was admitted in C.N.R. (National Conservatory) of Lyon in Louis Robilliard’s organ class. In 1999, she obtained the golden medial followed by the first award of virtuosity. In 2002, she met compositor, musicologist and interpreter Michael Radulescu who guided her to Austria where she attended his Organ class at University of Music and applied Arts in Vienna .In 2006, she acquired the concerti’s diploma.

Being a laureate in 2005 of the second competition of Xavier Darasse organ at Toulouse, she recorded a CD broadcasted by the Hortus Disc’s House. In 2007, she was attributed the “Award of the first disc”.

She obtained many awards of French musical critics (Le Monde de la Musique, Classica Repertoire) and International critics, notably in Netherlands (Orgelnieuws).

Lydia Sourial is regularly the host of French festivals and at foreign countries. Some of her concerts are broadcasted by “France Music” and Radiostephansdom”, in Vienne.

She is as well the titular of Notre-Dame Church Organ at St Didier au Mont d’Or.

Being attracted by the natural side of the soft medicine, Lydia Sourial is an osteopathy graduate, and is also the author of a work concerning music and body relation, the senses development to establish a conscious report to the sound.

Lydia Sourial cares deeply about the welfare of those most vulnerable, especially in Egypt. As such, she supports several international organizations.

INTERVIEW

Lydia Sourial answers the questions of Gaelle Le Galic,
France musique “in the courtyard of the famous” (“Dans la cour des Grands”).

G.L.G.: What did attract you to the organ ?

L.S.: One day, once strolling, I was 14 and was arriving at a church square.
I heard the sound of the organ. I entered the church; someone was playing Bach’s concerto in A minor. It felt like a firework of sounds, a huge belly was producing magnificent sounds. I was elated. I wanted right away to play. My father, who was pianist and organist too, had scores at home ; the day after, I left with them and started to work at it.

G.L.G.: How did you compose your programm?

L.S.: The Isle of the Dead was my starting point. I had to choose a piece for a competition. Someone suggested it to me, and when I started to work I was immediately touched by the rhythm and the images. The dramatic force, the fight against death and at the same time this frenetic race towards life was so poignant that it could not leave one indifferent. For me, as soon as I played the first notes, it was like an initiatory journey towards the beyond.

G.L.G.: What happened afterwards?

L.S.: After the depths of a dark sea, I needed the other side, the other face: whatever evokes life! I was looking for romantic organ works and thought of Liszt; who better than Liszt could express the vital force which can animate the human being? His far-seeing genius together with his generosity have given us music that is always full of hope, radiant.
For this program of symphonic transcriptions, I decided to transcript the Legend of St Francis of Assisi.

G.L.G.: And the link with the other piece?

L.S.: In Epiphaniai, it is the ancient world which disappears to leave room to the new world, it is also the two opposite forces of creation –death and life-which fuse, one giving way little by little to the other to let love emerge at the end. The limits of time are abolished, and love opens the doors of eternity for us. The Apocalypse verse which inspired Radulescu is a universal text which is still meaningful. It is about a displacement of awareness which generates a rebirth.

G.L.G.: Usually, we talk about Life going towards Death; why choose the opposite direction?

L.S.: Often fear does not allow us to live the present moment fully and death is already present, when everything becomes drab and sterile. And it is precisely there, in the heart of this death, that the desire to live becomes urgent and pressing. In the “Isle of the Dead”, through the violence and intensity of emotions, this desire becomes imperious. In Epiphaniai, this desire is fulfilled; the ancient world –and all its suite of fears and suffering –is dissolved and death is transcended.

G.L.G.: You have also a diploma in osteopathy. This is quite unusual. How do you explain you carrier?

L.S.: I like people and I always am surprised by the power of psyche on the human body, and by the interaction between both. At the same time, I was interested by the natural side of soft medicines.

G.LG.: Being both a musician and an osteopath, what’s the link between the two?

L.S.: Music is been lived all the time and without body one does not do anything !
One always separates body and mind whilst both work together. In music, one tends to forget ones body to concentrate only on the result. But in fact, to obtain a good result one needs good means. Knowing ones body is part of those means. When one finds a balance in ones body, one finds it also in the way to think. With the organ, the question was key since one plays with both hands and both feet and one has only the pelvis as support.
In certain works, balance is hard to find… I have been very lucky to work with those who were my teachers in music : their teaching always considered this aspect.