COMPETITION
Elsa Barraine (1910-1999)
French composer Elsa Barraine was born in Paris on 13 February 1910 and was regarded as a musical prodigy from an early age. At the age of just nine, she entered the renowned Conservatoire de Paris, where she studied composition under Paul Dukas. Her extraordinary talent soon became apparent: in 1929, she won the prestigious Prix de Rome. ...
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Marguerite Canal (1890-1978)
Marie Marguerite Denise Canal, a French conductor, composer, and music educator, was born in Toulouse to a musical family. A prodigy at the Paris Conservatory while studying with
Paul Vidal, she excelled in harmony, piano, and fugue. In 1917, Canal earned the unique distinction of being the very first woman to conduct an orchestra in France.
Hedwige Chrétien (1859-1944)
Hedwige Chrétien’s substantial corpus of compositions is increasingly being recognised for its elegance and craftsmanship. The scholar Florence Launay has brought much information about Chrétien to light. A contemporary of Debussy and Bonis, Chrétien was born in Compiègne in northern France. Her immediate family was not musical (her father was an engineer) but her maternal grandfather, Jules Ternizien, was a professional violinist. Her parents’ marriage ended in separation. Chrétien began an extended period of musical studies at the Paris Conservatoire in November 1872, when she was thirteen years old.
Rita Strohl (1864-1941)
Rita Strohl was a French composer and pianist who is now being increasingly rediscovered. She was born in Lorient and showed exceptional musical talent from an early age. At the age of just 13, she entered the Paris Conservatoire, where she studied piano and composition, amongst other subjects. Strohl was active in the Parisian music scene of the late 19th and early 20th centuries and was in contact with leading artists of her time.
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Poldowski (Régine Wieniawski, 1879 – 1932)
Poldowski was born Régine Wieniawski in 1879, contemporary with figures like Ravel, de Falla and Rachmaninoff. She was the daughter of the Polish violinist and composer Henryk Wieniawski, though her celebrated father died when she was just ten months old. However, her mother, the Englishwoman Isabelle Hampton, was also from a musical family, hence Poldowski moved in the musical aristocracy from an early age.
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