Great Dame

When flames engulfed Notre-Dame in 2019, the organ miraculously survived. Now cleaned and restored, it is sounding as good as ever,

- John Allison

The evening of 15 April 2019 is impossible to forget. Many around the globe, even with no personal attachment to Paris or Notre-Dame, watched in stunned disbelief as the city's great medieval cathedral was engulfed in flames. Though much of the world's bad news now feels almost predictable, this disaster seemed to strike out of nowhere; people will always remember where they were when the news broke, especially, perhaps, if they were admirers of the famous organ in which so much of the building's soul feels invested. But if the world felt heartbroken, imagine the emotions of those closely connected to Notre-Dame, above all the organists who not only play a starring role in its life, but spend more time than anyone else alone, communing with the building, practising when the rest of Paris is going to sleep.

For Vincent Dubois, one of the titular organists of Notre-Dame de Paris, that night remains etched into his memory. But like many deeply affected by the event, he was not even in the city. 'I was actually in my car in Strasbourg, where I live,' he recalls when we meet in the organ loft at Notre-Dame in mid-April, almost exactly six years after the fire. 'At the time I was the director of the Strasbourg Conservatoire and I was heading from the office to my house when I got a call from Johann Vexo, a choir organist here. I've known Johann for 25 years and I'd never heard his voice like that. I asked him what was wrong, and he said he'd just escaped from the organ loft - he'd been playing the service when flames and smoke were spotted, and the alarm was raised. He told me, “I can't look at it; I'm going home, but you must switch on your TV.”