Catherine Collard

Pianist Catherine Collard's specialties included works by such composers as Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms, and Franz Joseph Haydn, but she also incorporated works by prominent 20th century composers such as Arnold Schoenberg, Gilbert Amy, and Olivier Messiaen. She was a notable educator, and her recording career spanned more than two decades. Collard made her recording debut in 1972 with a performance of André Boucourechliev's Archipel IV. In 1976, she took up a piano professor post at the Conservatory of Saint-Maur-des-Fossés. Along with being active as a soloist, she also had a notable career as a collaborative pianist. Chief among her frequent partners was pianist Anne Queffélec. On the advice of pianist Bruno Rigutto, Collard began a fruitful relationship with the Lyrinx label in the late '80s, which issued a dozen of her recordings. She died in 1993, at age 46.