A beautiful piece of music for harp, performed by ALISA SADIKOVA, who was 9 years old at the time of this performance.
ORIGINAL: Marcel Georges Lucien Grandjany (gran-zhah-NEE) (September 3, 1891 – February 24, 1975) was a French-born American harpist and composer.
At seventeen he made his debut with the Concerts Lamoureux Orchestra, and gave his first solo recital, winning immediate acclaim. He appeared with Maurice Ravel in Paris in 1913. His London debut was in 1922 and his New York debut in 1924. He appeared as soloist with major orchestras under the direction of Gabriel Pierné, Alfred Cortot, Walter Damrosch, Serge Koussevitzky, George Szell, Fritz Reiner and Vladimir Golschmann, among others.
From 1921 to 1926, he headed the harp department of the Fontainebleau Summer School. He moved to the United States in 1926 and was appointed head of the Harp Department at the Juilliard School in 1938, where he taught until his death in 1975, with the exception of several years during the 1940s when he was on the faculty of the Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal. He also taught at the Manhattan School of Music from 1956 to 1967. Notable students include American harpists Nancy Allen , Emily L. Oppenheimer and Eileen Malone. He also taught Anna Clark, the second wife of William A. Clark; she was also his patron.
At the First International Harp Contest in Israel in 1959, Pierre Jamet of France proposed the formation of an international association of harpists. Grandjany undertook to see what he could do in the United States and chaired a committee of leading harpists. The Founding Committee met for the first time on December 3, 1962 in his apartment at 235 W. 71 St, Apartment 32. Over the years, he was a member of the Board of Directors, Regional Director, Chapter Chairman and President of the New York Chapter. He generously performed at AHS conferences; in 1964 at the first conference and in 1967, a solo recital which was his last public performance. He supported the educational goals of the Society vigorously and delighted in the American Harp Society’s growth and community.
