Born in Paris in 1924, FRANÇOISE RENET studied with Marcel Dupré at the Conservatoire de Paris where the First Prize for Organ and Improvisation was awarded to her in 1949.

She was chosen by Marcel Dupré and remained his assistant at Saint-Sulpice from 1955 to 1971, when the composer died. Hers was the painful honour of playing the unique Cavaillé-Coll organ at the funeral of her Master on 3 June 1971.

Apart from her career at Saint-Sulpice, a magnificent nave for the greatest organ in France, Françoise Renet emerged as one of the most reliable guides for the public and for her pupils at the Conservatoire Marcel Dupré in Meudon, as far as the discovery of the symphonic repertoire is concerned. The vigour of her playing and the versatility of her palette flatteringly enhance her interpretations of ancient music as well.

An ideal reference for the music and the teaching of Marcel Dupré, Françoise Renet has become well known among connoisseurs for her precise fidelity to the text and the energy of her inspiration. Her two concerts during the FESTIVAL MARCEL DUPRE 1986, at Saint-Sernin, were the most important events among the numerous homages that marked the centenary of the composer’s birth, in France and abroad.

Françoise Renet, who took a share in the career of Marcel Dupré as a recitalist, remembers that she was by his side the Wight that witnessed the extempore playing of Choral et Fugue.
She knows what the written work owes to memory and even more to composition. She is aware of the dual nature of this piece and her interpretation, so deeply attuned to that of Marcel Dupré’s on the organ of Saint-Ouen, Rouen, can justly be accepted as definitive, together with her rendering of Le Chemin de la Croix.