Odette Godeau

Odette Godeau was a harpist French born with Paris the May 8th 1895 and deceased in December 1987 in Paris.

Êlève of Alphonse Hasselmans then of Marcel Tournier with the Conservatory national higher of music and dance of Paris, it was accepted first unanimously in 1912 and gained the First Price of the Academy in 1915 in front of a jury chaired by Gabriel Fauré.

During the First World War, it took part in many official receptions for the Croix-Rouge. As from 1919, it made important rounds in North Africa (Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia) where it played with the symphony orchestras of Algiers, Oran, Constantine and Tunis. She is then recognized like a musician of talent and an excellent interpreter of works of Debussy, Fauré, Saint-Saëns, Pierné, and Mozart in particular. This notoriety will enable him to organize concerts under its name, the Godeau Concerts.

She meets Camille Saint-Saëns with which she plays, and binds friendship with Ham Nghi (1871-1943), prince of Annam, then in exile in Algiers.

Returned to France in 1924, it will be soloist of the Radio Frenchwoman on Radio Eiffel Tower, and in concert with Paris, Biarritz, Marseilles, Pau, Saint-Sebastien in Spain in particular.

In 1937, it sets out again for a round in Algeria, then in the south of France (in particular at the Pays Basque) during the Occupation, where it accompanies the professional singer Madeleine Barbreau and the dancer Simone Fiorenzia (disciple of Isadora Duncan). Lily Laskine will not hesitate to call upon it.

Sources

International association of the harpists and friends of the toothing-stone - (AIHAH).

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