Yvonne Desportes (1907, Cobourg - 1993, Paris)
Yvonne Desportes was born in 1907 in Coburg, Germany. Her mother was a painter of German origin, and her father, a conductor and composer, became Desportes’ first teacher. She studied piano under Yvonne Lefébure, and in 1925 began studying composition at the Paris Conservatory under Jean and Noël Gallon. During this time, she composed a Quintet for winds, a Sextet for winds and piano, and some pièces de concours. She competed in the Prix de Rome, won prizes in 1930 and 1931, and won the Grand Prize in 1932 as a student of Paul Dukas. While in Rome, she met her future husband: Ulysse Geminiani, who had himself won the Prix de Rome for sculpture. They had three children. She returned to the Conservatory in 1937 as a solfège coach, was named a professor in 1943, and from 1958 to 1978 was head of the counterpoint and fugue class. In 1936, Florent Schmitt lauded the inventiveness of her ballet Trifaldin (1934) which was already her opus 24. She left behind a body of work of considerable size – 512 works, across every musical genre. Most are pieces for solo piano, pieces of chamber music and pedagogical works. The rest is made up of pieces with orchestra (symphonic poems, concertos, works for voice and orchestra, lyric works and ballets), and mélodies for voice and piano or instrumental ensemble.

– Florence Launay et Francis Paraïso –

[Traduction en anglais : Raphaël Meyer]