Paris: Itaru Sekiguchi first heard the Great Organ of the Paris Notre Dame cathedral when he was 10. The "infernal sound" changed his life forever. "It was a bit of a culture shock," he said.
Today the Japanese, 53, is one of a handful of specialists entrusted with tuning and voicing the fabled instrument as Notre Dame prepares to reopen on December 7 after a devastating fire in 2019. The near 300-year-old colossus was miraclously spared by the flames. Sekiguchi moved to France in his twenties to become an organ builder and restorer, dreaming of a chance to work on the "voice" of the masterpiece of Gothic architecture.
"I wanted to come to France because that's where it's happening. But when I told my family, they thought I was a bit out of my depth," Sekiguchi, who hails from Sendai in northeastern Japan, said in fluent French. In 2018, he became the cathedral's official organ builder, responsible for the day-to-day maintenance of France's largest musical instrument, which is the height of a four-storey building.
The voice of the monument since 1733, the organ has 8,000 pipes and a sound when in full flight that its players describe as truly symphonic. "It was my dream. It gave me a chance to get to know the instrument a little better," said Sekiguchi, who has lived in the central Correze department for a quarter of a century.
For three weeks a month, Sekiguchi handled maintenance operations, including tuning the organ, adapting to the constraints of one of the most visited .