French music educators

Maurice Gendron (26 December 1920, near Nice – 20 August 1990, Grez-sur-Loing) was a French cellist, conductor and teacher. He is widely considered one of the greatest cellists of the 20th century. He was an Officer of the Legion of Honor and a recipient of the National Order of Merit. He was an active member of the French Resistance during World War II.Gendron recorded most of the standard concerto repertoire with conductors such as Bernard Haitink, Raymond Leppard, and Pablo Casals (the only cellist to appear on a commercial recording under Casals's baton), and with orchestras such as the Vienna State Opera Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, and the London Philharmonic Orchestra. He also recorded the sonata repertoire with pianists such as Philippe Entremont and Jean Françaix. For 25 years he was a member of a celebrated piano trio with Yehudi and Hephzibah Menuhin.

He also made a famous recording (earning an Edison Award) of J. S. Bach's solo cello suites.Gendron played with many musical stars of his time, including Benjamin Britten, Dinu Lipatti and Rudolf Serkin. The 1693 Stradivarius he played, which has become known as the ex-Gendron cello, was subsequently on loan to German cellist Maria Kliegel.
Gendron taught at the Musikhochschule Saarbrücken, the Yehudi Menuhin School and at the Paris Conservatoire. His students include Colin Carr, Chu Yibing and Jacqueline du Pré. In 2013 a former student alleged that Gendron was abusive toward young students during his time at the Yehudi Menuhin School in the '60s and '70s. Richard Hillier, the headmaster at YMS, has said he is aware of the allegations but that according to school documents, no concerns were raised about Gendron's behaviour. Other students of Gendron have described him as a very strict, even problematic teacher, but an influential one.Gendron was the first modern cellist to record Boccherini's Concerto in B-flat in its original form (he discovered the original manuscript in the Dresden State Library) instead of Grützmacher's version. This recording has been widely acclaimed by critics and is considered a classic.
He gave the first Western performance of Prokofiev's Cello Concerto with the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Walter Susskind, and was subsequently given exclusive rights to the piece's performance for 3 years.
His approach to cello playing is summed up in his book "L'Art du Violoncelle", written in collaboration with Walter Grimmer and published in 1999 by Schott [ED 9176; ISMN M-001-12682-3].
Gendron is the father of the actor François-Éric Gendron.Apart from several other currently available recordings, in 2015 Decca launched a 14-CD boxset, "L’Art de Maurice Gendron" (catalogue number 4823849), which comprises all his recordings for Decca and Philips in addition to some of his most relevant work for EMI.

Paul Tortelier (21 March 1914 – 18 December 1990) was a French cellist and composer. After an outstanding student career at the Conservatoire de Paris he played in orchestras in France and the US before the Second World War. After the war he became a well-known soloist, playing in countries round the globe. He taught at conservatoires in France, Germany and China, and gave televised masterclasses in England. He was particularly associated with the solo part in Richard Strauss's Don Quixote, cello concertos by Elgar and others, and Bach's Cello Suites.

Eugénie "Ninon" Vallin (8 September 1886 – 22 November 1961) was a French lyric soprano who achieved considerable popularity in opera, operetta and classical song recitals during an international career that lasted for more than four decades.

Carlos Salzedo (6 April 1885 – 17 August 1961) was a French harpist, pianist, composer and conductor. His compositions presented the harp as a virtuoso instrument. He influenced many composers with his new ideas for the harp's sounds, and was influential in New York's new music scene through his work leading the International Composers' Guild with Edgard Varèse.
Salzedo started studying at the Paris Conservatory at age nine and won the premier prix in harp and piano when he was just 16. He started his solo recital career at age 18, and was brought to the United States of America six years later, to perform as solo harpist with the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City. He toured extensively with the Trio de Lutèce, with Georges Barrère, flute and Paul Kéfer, cello. After being drafted into the French Army during World War I, Salzedo returned to the United States and continued touring with the trio.
In consultation with Vaslav Nijinsky during a summer in Maine, together they developed a system of esthetic gestures to be used while performing on the harp. Subsequently, he was instrumental in raising money to save Nijinsky by funding his residence in a Swiss Sanatorium. Aside from touring with his trio, he organized The Salzedo Harp Ensemble, utilizing his students, which toured extensively, often in collaboration with singers from the Metropolitan Opera.
He co-founded the International Composers' Guild with Edgard Varèse in 1921, and founded the National Harp Association to promote the harp. In addition to forming a summer harp colony, first in Seal Harbor, then later in Camden, Maine, he founded the harp department at the Curtis Institute of Music in 1924. He continued to teach privately in New York City until his death. He developed new techniques and notations for these techniques, which he used extensively in his compositions after 1919.