TALMA, LOUISE  

The American Louise Talma held a leading position as a neoclassical composer, winning considerable contemporary distinction. The daughter of a French opera-singer mother, she studied at the Institute of Musical Arts in New York from 1922 to 1930. She also spent 13 summers, from 1926, at the Fontainebleau School of Music, where she studied the piano with Isidore Philipp, and harmony, counterpoint, fugue and composition with Nadia Boulanger.

Music

Talma’s music reflects something of her French training as she developed her own musical language. She contributed to a wide spectrum of genres, her works including songs, piano pieces and an opera that won success at its German premiere.