Andree Aeschlimann Rochat (12 January 1900 – 8 January 1990) was a Swiss composer, music critic, and pianist who used the pseudonym Jean Durand. She spent more than forty years in

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

, where she wrote music reviews in several magazines, which were later published as a collection. Rochat composed music for small ensembles, and was awarded the

GEDOK The GEDOK, founded in 1926 as the "Gemeinschaft deutscher und oesterreichischer Künstlerinnen und Kunstfreundinnen" (Community of German and Austrian Women Artists and Art Friends), is the oldest and largest European network for female artists of ...

prize. She destroyed many of her compositions.

Life

Rochat was born in

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

, Switzerland, to Julie Helene Lavater and Ernest Auguste Rochat, a pastor. She married Erhard Aeschlimann, a publisher. Rochat studied music at the

Geneva Conservatory Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

and in Ascona, Switzerland; Milan, Italy; and at the

Paris Conservatory The Conservatoire de Paris (), or the Paris Conservatory, is a college of music and dance founded in 1795. Officially known as the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (; CNSMDP), it is situated in the avenue Jean Ja ...

. Her teachers included Rinaldo Renzo Bossi, Emile Jacques Dalcroze, Andre Gedalge,

Giacomo Orefice Giacomo Orefice (1865 – 1922) was an Italian composer. He was born on 27 August 1865 in Vicenza, which was then part of the Austrian Empire, but was annexed into Italy in the following year. He studied under Alessandro Busi and Luigi Manc ...

, Vladimir Vogel, and Ernst Wolff. Rochat lived in Milan from 1922 to 1964, where she published music reviews in several magazines under the pseudonym Jean Durand. In 1941, the reviews were published as a collection entitled ''Journal d'un Amateur de Musique''. Rochat composed mostly atonal music for small ensembles. In 1961, her composition ''Musica per Archi'', opus 26, received the

(Gemeinschaft deutscher und oesterreichischer Künstlerinnen und Kunstfreundinnen; Community of German and Austrian Women Artists and Art Friends) prize. Although she composed works through at least opus 34, she destroyed many of her compositions, saying that she “did not want to burden anyone with them.” In 1965, she moved to Zurich, where she joined the Swiss Musicians' Association and lived until her death in 1990. Some of Rochat’s compositions have survived; several were published by

Carisch Carisch is an Italian music publishing house, founded in Leipzig in 1887 under the name Carisch & Jänichen for editorial production, trade and import of sheet music and musical instruments and based in Milan by the Swiss, G.A. Carisch. Initially d ...

. They include:

Chamber

*''Cinque Pezzi Brevi'' (flute and piano) *''Improvisation, opus 34'' (flute, piano and drums) *''Musica per Archi, opus 26'' *''Sonata, opus 12'' (violin and piano) *''Sonata, opus 20'' (flute and harp) *''Suite, opus 25'' (two violins) *''Tre Intermezzi, opus 14'' (clarinet and piano)

Piano

*''Kadeidoscope, opus 30'' *''Trois Pieces, opus 32''

Vocal

*''Au Jardin Suite, opus 28'' (soprano, mezzo-soprano, flute and violin; text by Mostefa Lacheraf) *''De Musica, opus 31'' (baritone, violin, trumpet, piano and drums; text by

St. Augustine Augustine of Hippo ( , ; ; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430) was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Africa. His writings deeply influenced the development of Western philosop ...

) *''Seven Sonnets'' (soprano and piano; text by Alighieri Dante) *''Tre Liriche, opus 19'' (soprano and piano; text by

Antonio Negri Antonio Negri (; ; 1 August 1933 – 16 December 2023) was an Italian political philosopher known as one of the most prominent theorists of autonomism, as well as for his co-authorship of ''Empire (Hardt and Negri book), Empire'' with Michae ...

)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rochat, Andree Aeschlimann Swiss women composers 1900 births 1990 deaths Swiss music critics Women music critics Swiss pianists Swiss women pianists Swiss writers about music Pseudonymous artists Conservatoire de Paris alumni