Huguette Dreyfus

Huguette Dreyfus (born November 30, 1928 in Mulhouse, Alsace, France) is a French harpsichordist.

Biography

Huguette Dreyfus began taking piano lessons at the age of four years. In 1946, she began working with renowned piano teacher Lazare Lévy. In 1950, having learned that music historian Norbert Dufourcq was to give special classes on the music of Johann Sebastian Bach (in recognition of the bicentennial of Bach's death) at the Conservatoire de Paris, she entered into the class and remained there for four years. In addition to her piano class, she also studied the harpsichord at the Académie Chigiana de Siena under Ruggero Gerlin who, himself, was a student of harpsichord-reviver Wanda Landowska. Years later, in 1958, Dreyfus won the Geneva international harpsichord competition, becoming a prominent figure of ancient Renaissance and Baroque music and of the revival of the harpsichord in France.

Her favorite instrument is a harpsichord from Johann Heinrich Hemsch, a German harpsichord maker. His best instruments were made in Paris in the 18th century and are often comparable to those made by Blanchet, another celebrated harpsichord maker.

Dreyfus taught at the Schola Cantorum, at the Sorbonne in Paris, and at the National conservatory of music and dance of Lyon(CNSMD de Lyon). She taught as well as part of the International Academy of Organ and old music of Saint-Maxima-la-Sainte-Baume, and at the Villecroze Academie de Musique. In this regard, the quality and the significant number of harpsichordists who identify with her teaching, such as Christophe Rousset, Olivier Baumont, Yannick Le Gaillard, Noëlle Spieth, and Jory Vinikour speaks for itself. She is part of the jury of the International Harpsichord Competition of Paris.

Her numerous concerts, master classes and recordings led her to work with numerous musical personalities: Eduard Melkus, Luciano Sgrizzi, Luigi Ferdinando Tagliavini, Pierre Boulez, Paul Kuentz, Lionel Rogg, Alfred Planyavsky, Jean-Pierre Rampal, and more.

References

The content of this article originally comes from the equivalent article in the French Wikipédia.