Isabelle Nef, ''née'' Lander (27 September 1895 – 2 January 1976) was a Swiss pianist and

harpsichordist A harpsichordist is a person who plays the harpsichord. Harpsichordists may play as soloists, as accompanists, as chamber musicians, or as members of an orchestra, or some combination of these roles. Solo harpsichordists may play unaccompanied son ...

, as well as a professor at the

Conservatoire de musique de Genève The Conservatoire de musique de Genève is a music school in Geneva, Switzerland. The Conservatory hosts 2,400 non-professional students. Since 2009, the professional courses have been led by the Geneva University of Music (''Haute école de ...

Life

Born in Geneva, Nef studied the piano at the conservatoire de Genève with Marie Panthès then, in Paris,

composition Composition or Compositions may refer to: Arts and literature *Composition (dance), practice and teaching of choreography * Composition (language), in literature and rhetoric, producing a work in spoken tradition and written discourse, to include ...

with

Vincent d'Indy Paul Marie Théodore Vincent d'Indy (; 27 March 18512 December 1931) was a French composer and teacher. His influence as a teacher, in particular, was considerable. He was a co-founder of the Schola Cantorum de Paris and also taught at the Pa ...

and

harpsichord A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a musical keyboard, keyboard. Depressing a key raises its back end within the instrument, which in turn raises a mechanism with a small plectrum made from quill or plastic that plucks one ...

with

Wanda Landowska Wanda Aleksandra Landowska (5 July 1879 – 16 August 1959) was a Polish harpsichordist and pianist whose performances, teaching, writings and especially her many recordings played a large role in reviving the popularity of the harpsichord in t ...

. She had a concert career in Europe, South America and North America including Seattle, New York and Washington in USSR, and South Africa and in Australia. For her 80th birthday, she performed works by Mozart and Bach on

fortepiano A fortepiano is an early piano. In principle, the word "fortepiano" can designate any piano dating from the invention of the instrument by Bartolomeo Cristofori in 1700 up to the early 19th century. Most typically, however, it is used to ref ...

at the in Geneva. In 1936 she became the first harpsichord teacher at the Conservatoire de Genève. She then became an honorary professor and remained there until 1975 when she retired at the age of 80. She died in Collex-Bossy. She was succeeded by harpsichordist Christiane Jaccottet. A path was given her name in Collex-Bossy.

References

External links

Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of 20th Century Classical Musicians
on

WorldCat WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the O ...

, 1997 * {{DEFAULTSORT:Nef, Isabelle Swiss harpsichordists Swiss classical pianists Swiss women pianists 20th-century Swiss classical pianists Women classical pianists 1895 births 1976 deaths Musicians from Geneva