Huguette Dreyfus is a French harpsichordist born on November 30, 1928 in Mulhouse

Mulhouse

Mulhouse |mill]] hamlet) is a city and commune in eastern France, close to the Swiss and German borders. With a population of 110,514 and 278,206 inhabitants in the metropolitan area in 2006, it is the largest city in the Haut-Rhin département, and the second largest in the Alsace region after...

, Alsace

Alsace

Alsace is the fifth-smallest of the 27 regions of France in land area , and the smallest in metropolitan France. It is also the seventh-most densely populated region in France and third most densely populated region in metropolitan France, with ca. 220 inhabitants per km²...

, France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

.

Biography

Huguette Dreyfus began taking piano lessons at four years old. In 1946, she began working with renowned piano teacher Lazare Lévy

Lazare Lévy

Lazare Lévy was an influential French pianist, organist, composer and pedgogue. As a virtuoso pianist he toured throughout Europe, in North Africa, Israel, the Soviet Union and Japan...

. In 1950, having learned that music historian Norbert Dufourcq was to give special classes on the music of Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...

 (in recognition of the bicentennial of Bach's death) at the Conservatoire de Paris

Conservatoire de Paris

The Conservatoire de Paris is a college of music and dance founded in 1795, now situated in the avenue Jean Jaurès in the 19th arrondissement of Paris, France...

, she entered into the class and remained there for four years. In addition to her piano class, she also studied the harpsichord

Harpsichord

A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when a key is pressed.In the narrow sense, "harpsichord" designates only the large wing-shaped instruments in which the strings are perpendicular to the keyboard...

 at the Académie Chigiana de Siena under Ruggero Gerlin who, himself, was a student of harpsichord-reviver Wanda Landowska

Wanda Landowska

Wanda Landowska was a Polish harpsichordist whose performances, teaching, recordings and writings played a large role in reviving the popularity of the harpsichord in the early 20th century...

. Years later, in 1958, Dreyfus won the Geneva international harpsichord competition, becoming a prominent figure of ancient Renaissance

Renaissance

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...

 and Baroque

Baroque

The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...

 music and of the revival of the harpsichord in France.

Her favorite instrument is a harpsichord from Johann Heinrich Hemsch, a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 harpsichord maker. His best instruments were made in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 in the 18th century and are often comparable to those made by Blanchet

Blanchet (harpsichord makers)

The Blanchet family were French harpsichord-makers from the late-17th century to the mid-19th century, by which time they had become piano makers....

, another celebrated harpsichord maker.

Dreyfus taught at the Schola Cantorum

Schola Cantorum

The Schola Cantorum de Paris is a private music school in Paris. It was founded in 1894 by Charles Bordes, Alexandre Guilmant and Vincent d'Indy as a counterbalance to the Paris Conservatoire's emphasis on opera...

, at the Sorbonne in Paris, and at the National conservatory of music and dance of Lyon

Lyon

Lyon , is a city in east-central France in the Rhône-Alpes region, situated between Paris and Marseille. Lyon is located at from Paris, from Marseille, from Geneva, from Turin, and from Barcelona. The residents of the city are called Lyonnais....

(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

Christophe Rousset

Christophe Rousset is a French harpsichordist and conductor, specializing in the performance of baroque music on period instruments.-Biography:...

, Olivier Beaumont, Yannick Le Gaillard, Noëlle Spieth, and Jory Vinikour

Jory Vinikour

Jory Vinikour is an American harpsichordist. He has been living in Paris since 1990, where he studied on a scholarship from the Fulbright Foundation with Huguette Dreyfus and Kenneth Gilbert....

 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

Eduard Melkus

Eduard Melkus is an Austrian violinist and violist.Following the Second World War, Melkus dedicated himself to the exploration of historically informed performance...

, Christian Lardé, Luciano Sgrizzi

Luciano Sgrizzi

Luciano Sgrizzi was an Italian harpsichordist, organist, pianist and composer.-Biography:Luciano Sgrizzi was born in Bologna, from whose Philharmonic Academy he graduated as a pianist in 1923. He toured South America for three years, then returned to Italy to continue his organ and composition...

, Luigi Ferdinando Tagliavini, Pierre Boulez

Pierre Boulez

Pierre Boulez is a French composer of contemporary classical music, a pianist, and a conductor.-Early years:Boulez was born in Montbrison, Loire, France. As a child he began piano lessons and demonstrated aptitude in both music and mathematics...

, Paul Kuentz

Paul Kuentz

Paul Kuentz is a French conductor who studied at the Paris Conservatoire from 1947 to 1950, with Noël Gallon, Georges Hugon and Eugene Bigot. He founded the Paul Kuentz Chamber Orchestra in 1951 and made many tours of Europe and the USA, performing the orchestral works of Bach at the Church of...

, Bruno Amaducci, Andreas Adorjan, Lionel Rogg

Lionel Rogg

Lionel Rogg is a Swiss organist, composer and teacher of musical theory. Among many other distinctions, he has recorded the complete organ works of Johann Sebastian Bach three times....

, Karl Scheit, Gerald Sonneck, Alfred Planyavsky, Hans Jürg Lange, Jean-Pierre Rampal

Jean-Pierre Rampal

Jean-Pierre Louis Rampal was a French flautist. He has been personally "credited with returning to the flute the popularity as a solo classical instrument it had not held since the 18th century."-Early years:...

, etc.