Alicia de Larrocha facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Alicia de Larrocha
Born	23 May 1923 Barcelona, Spain
Died	25 September 2009 (aged 86) Barcelona, Spain

Alicia de Larrocha (born May 23, 1923 – died September 25, 2009) was an amazing Spanish pianist and composer. Many people thought she was one of the best piano players of the 1900s. Some even called her "the greatest Spanish pianist ever"!

She won many important awards, like several Grammy Awards. She also helped make the music of Spanish composers Isaac Albéniz and Enrique Granados more famous. In 1995, she was the first Spanish artist to win a special prize from UNESCO.

Her Amazing Life and Career

Alicia de Larrocha was born in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. She started learning to play the piano when she was only three years old! Her teacher was Frank Marshall. Both of her parents were pianists, and she also had aunts and uncles who played the piano.

She gave her first public performance at age five. This was at a big event called the International Exposition in Barcelona. When she was six, she played her first concert at the World's Fair in Seville. She played with an orchestra for the first time when she was 11.

By 1943, her concerts in Spain were always sold out. She started touring around the world in 1947. In 1954, she toured North America with the Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestra. She also toured Southern Africa many times because people loved her music so much!

Alicia de Larrocha started writing her own music when she was seven. She continued composing until she was about 30 years old. She never played her own music in public. However, she allowed her family to share her compositions after she passed away.

She made many recordings of piano music. She was especially known for playing pieces by Spanish composers. These included Manuel de Falla, Enrique Granados, Federico Mompou, and Isaac Albéniz. She also recorded the keyboard sonatas of Antonio Soler in 1967.

Alicia de Larrocha recorded music for several big companies. She won her first Grammy Award in 1975. Her last Grammy was in 1992, when she was almost 70 years old. In 1994, she received the Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts. This is a very important award in Spain.

Alicia was less than five feet tall. She also had small hands for a pianist. Her hands could barely reach a tenth (a wide musical interval) on the piano keys. Even so, when she was younger, she could play all the big and difficult piano concertos. These included pieces by Beethoven, Liszt, Brahms, and Rachmaninoff. She was also great at playing the wide musical parts in music by Granados and Albéniz. She had a "long fifth finger" and could stretch her thumb and index finger far apart. This helped her play difficult pieces.

She made her first recordings of Chopin's music when she was only nine years old. At that time, her feet couldn't even reach the piano pedals! Many people thought she was an amazing player of Chopin's music.

As she got older, she started playing different types of music. She played more pieces by Mozart and Beethoven in her concerts. She was often a special guest at the "Mostly Mozart Festival" in New York. In 2001, she became an Honorary Member of the Foundation for Iberian Music.

Alicia de Larrocha stopped performing in public in October 2003. She was 80 years old and had a career that lasted 76 years!

She passed away on September 25, 2009, in Barcelona. She was 86 years old. Her health had been getting worse since she broke her hip five years before. Her husband, who was also a pianist, had passed away in 1982. They had two children together.

Awards and Honors

Alicia de Larrocha won many awards during her life. She was nominated for 14 Grammy Awards and won four of them! She also received special honorary degrees from several universities.

A crater on the planet Mercury was named in her honor.

See also

In Spanish: Alicia de Larrocha para niños