September, 2001

August's work on this site has been primarily to expand the format to a style and size that will be maintained throughout the coming school year.
New pages added to this site in September include:
A Site Map
A new newsletter column: Just For Teachers
and a page listing Biographies and Autobiographies of women concert pianists.

Aline van Barentzen (b. Somerville, Mass., July 7, 1897; d. 1981)
This outstanding pianist and educator is missing from the major English music dictionaries, even though born in the U.S. A French citizen since the 1930's and a professor at the Paris Conservatory since 1954, Aline van Barentzen still holds the record as the youngest pianist to ever earn the First Prize at the Paris Conservatory, at age 11. Studying also in Berlin and Vienna (with Leschetizky) she gave over 2500 performances and had an active repertoire of over 500 works. Decorated three times by the French government she is included in the French music dictionaries as one of the world's great pianists.

You may also notice that work was begun annotating each name in the alphabetical listing of Yesterday's Concert Pianists , as well as the addition of source codes for each individual. This should make it more interesting to browse through the over 100 names.

Suggestions and contributions are always welcome, particularly articles for the Just For Teachers column and Biography Pages of historic women that are already on the list but not linked to a page. For more information please e-mail the editor .