“Colette Maze, now 107, began playing the piano at age 5 and defied the social conventions of her day to embrace it as a profession rather than as a pastime,” writes Eleanor Beardsley in Monday’s (9/20) National Public Radio. “Her son first arranged for her performances to be recorded when she was in her 90s. She has just released her sixth album…. Her grandmother played piano and her mother the violin. She remembers concerts at their grand Paris apartment when she was a child…. She grew up just steps away from Paris’ prestigious École Normale de Musique…. She auditioned for, and was granted, a spot with its director, legendary pianist Alfred Cortot.… Her son … Fabrice Maze began to think about recording his mother when she was in her 90s…. ‘From morning to night—she was always at the piano. She sort of breathed through the piano,’ he says…. Maze is Cortot’s last living pupil. Cortot taught a specific technique and method, focused on relaxing the arms and hands. ‘So the way she’s touching the piano is … very rare,’ her son says. [The new recording] was released in May—a compilation of all the Debussy from her earlier recordings.”
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