Marcel Grandjany

Born on 3 September 1891 in Paris, died on 24 February 1975 in New York; Marcel Grandjany was a harpist and composer. He took private harp lessons with Henriette Renié, entered Hasselmans’s harp class at the Paris Conservatoire in 1902 and won the Premier Prix at the age of thirteen; in 1909 he left the Conservatoire with first prizes for harmony and for counterpoint and fugue. In 1921 he founded the harp class at the American Conservatory in Fontainebleau, which he directed for several years; in 1936 he left Europe and settled first in New York, then in Montreal. Besides numerous transcriptions he composed original works for harp such as “Le Vanneur”, “Baiser d’enfant” and “Parmi les marronniers”, as well as piano music and mélodies; he appeared as a soloist until 1970. On a gala recording by Doc Heilein and Friends, the harpist Joel von Lerber plays his fantaisie “The Colorado Trail”, Op. 28.