He was an organ maestro, designer, and composer. He had a flamboyant, unorthodox playing style, and transcribed music by composers who seem to be an odd fit for the organ, including Stravinsky.
His father was a natural gas salesman.
He became a church organist before he was a teenager. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire with Marcel Dupré, Maurice Duruflé and Olivier Messiaen, and was appointed organist at the church of St. Eustache in Paris in 1963, a post he held for five decades.