Naji Hakim is a contemporary representative of the long tradition of French organist-composers. Some of his music reflects Arab influences. Hakim was born in Beirut on October 31, 1955. Both his parents were musical, and Hakim and his three siblings all took music lessons; Hakim played the cello at first. Entering Beirut's Collège du Sacré-Coeur, he encountered for the first time the sound of a French Romantic organ in the grand tradition and was instantly transfixed. By age 15, he was giving concerts of organ music. However, with conditions deteriorating in Lebanon, his father insisted that he pursue an engineering degree, a goal he continued to pursue in Paris after a return to Lebanon became difficult due to the country's decades-long Civil War. Once he was in Paris, his musical dreams were only strengthened. He applied to the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris in 1976, was turned down by a 4–3 vote of the admissions committee, and cried all night, but then took the advice of a friend and began studying with organist Jean Langlais. Those lessons continued for a decade, and Langlais became an enthusiastic backer of Hakim's career; finally, he was admitted to the Conservatoire and took seven first prizes in various performance and counterpoint study categories. In 1985, Hakim became the organist at Sacré-Coeur, Paris' 1914 hilltop monument to the Catholic faith. In 1993, he moved to the Eglise de la Sainte-Trinité, an even more prestigious position -- his predecessor there was Olivier Messiaen. That year, he made his recording debut on the Priory label with the album Naji Hakim: Rhapsody. Hakim remained at Sainte-Trinité until 2008. Since then, he has devoted full time to composition, writing not only organ music but also music for other instruments and ensembles, not all of it sacred. In 2010, he moved to the Signum Classics label for the album Hakim Plays Hakim, and he has continued to record for that label. Performances and commissions of his music have ranged far beyond France; he has enriched the sparse repertory of concertos for organ and orchestra with the Seattle Concerto (2000); the same year saw the release of an organ work called Gershwinesca. Some of his music, such as the Ouverture Libanaise for orchestra, as well as various organ pieces, has begun to reflect his Arab background. In 2017, the Signum label issued an album of secular Hakim compositions, including a solo cantata with texts drawn from Racine's tragedy Phèdre and a recording of the Piano Concerto with Hakim himself at the keyboard. In 2023, soprano Anne Warthmann released two volumes of performances of Hakim's vocal music, entitled Anne Warthmann Sings Naji Hakim. By that time, Hakim's own recording catalog comprised more than ten albums, and some 70 of his compositions had been recorded. ~ James Manheim, Rovi