Wanda Landowska: Biography from Answers.com Mobile

Wanda Louise Landowska

(born July 5, 1879, Warsaw, Pol., Russian Empire — died Aug. 16, 1959, Lakeville, Conn., U.S.) Polish-born U.S. harpsichordist and pianist. After establishing herself as a pianist and devoting much energy to musicological research, she had a harpsichord made for her by Pleyel in Paris. She first performed on this instrument at the Breslau Bach Festival in 1912, thus beginning the 20th-century revival of the instrument and sparking a new international interest in authentic performance practice. Her many recordings include the first recording of Johann Sebastian Bach's Goldberg Variations, and she commissioned works such as Manuel de Falla's Harpsichord Concerto and Francis Poulenc's Concert champêtre. As a Jew she was forced to flee the Nazis, and after 1940 she lived and taught in the U.S.

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