The French musicologist and music journalist Jacques Merlet, a radio broadcaster of early music and an excellent connoisseur of the organ, has died in Paris at the age of 83.
Born in Sainte-Foy-la-Grande in Gironde in 1931, Jacques Merlet studied organ and piano at the Paris Conservatoire, where he was also a student of Olivier Messiaen. After graduating, he decided to pursue a career as a radio editor. He first worked for the radio station France Culture and later for France Musique.
Merlet was regarded as a tireless promoter of the early music scene, and he ensured that personalities such as Jean-Claude Malgoire, William Christie, Jordi Savall and Philippe Herreweghe were given a radiofone platform in France during their pioneering period. In 2003, he was awarded the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French state.
Merlet suffered his first stroke in 2000 and has now succumbed to the consequences of pneumonia.
