Claude Helffer

Claude Helffer (18 June 1922 – 27 October 2004) was a French pianist.

Claude Helffer
Born	18 June 1922 Paris, France
Died	27 October 2004 (aged 82) Paris, France
Education	École Polytechnique
Spouse	Mireille Helffer (m. 1946)

Early life

Helffer was born in Paris, and began piano lessons at the age of five. From the age of ten, until the outbreak of World War II, he studied with Robert Casadesus. During the war, he entered École Polytechnique and fought for the French Resistance during World War II. After the war, he studied theory and composition with René Leibowitz.

Career

He made his debut in Paris in 1948 and from 1954 appeared regularly in the concerts of the Domaine musical.

Helffer gave many premières of new works and was the dedicatee of several notable works, including Erikhthon (Xenakis, 1974), Concerto (Boucourechliev, 1975), Stances (Betsy Jolas, 1978), Concerto no. 1 (Luis de Pablo, 1980), Envoi (Gilles Tremblay, 1982), and Modifications (Michael Jarrell, 1983). Conductors he collaborated with included Boulez, Bour, Gielen, Leibowitz, Maderna, Marriner, Martinon, van Otterloo, Prêtre and Scherchen. His discography includes the complete piano music of Schoenberg (Grand Prix du Disque), Debussy and Ravel and the Sonatas of Boulez, Berg and Barraqué.

Helffer taught master classes all over the world, most notably at the Salzburg Summer Academy from 1985 to 1998.

Personal life

Helffer married noted ethnomusicologist Mireille Helffer. They met at the Lycée Molière two years prior (June 1946).^[1]