Annie d' Arco

Annie d'Arco was a French pianist born in Marseille in 1920 and who died in Paris in 1998. Her name is associated above all with chamber music, a field in which she left a more lasting mark than through her performances as a soloist, although she also performed in the main cities of Europe.

Her training began in her native city and continued afterwards at the Paris Conservatoire, with Marguerite Long, where she obtained the premier prix (first prize) in 1938. For several years she worked as accompanist for the violin, singing and wind instrument classes at that same institution. In 1946 she won second prize at the Geneva Competition.

In the field of chamber music she collaborated with Henryk Szeryng, Jean-Pierre Rampal and, especially closely, with the cellist André Navarra, with whom she recorded sonatas by Schubert, Chopin and Saint-Saëns. As a soloist, her recordings of Mendelssohn's Lieder ohne Worte and of Chabrier's principal works stand out.

She taught at the Paris Conservatoire and at the École Normale de Musique, where she passed on her experience to new generations of performers.