Denise Restout
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Denise Restout (November 24, 1915 - March 9, 2004) - keyboard teacher; expert on German and French Baroque performance practice for the keyboard; and protégé, assistant, editor and companion of noted harpsichordist Wanda Landowska.
Born in Paris, Restout studied drawing, geometry, art history and painting at the Bazot Studios, and was admitted to the School of Applied Arts of Paris in 1928. Restout received the first medal of the National Conservatory of Music (Paris) in 1930 and began study of the harpsichord with Wanda Landowska and the organ with Joseph Bonnet in 1933.
As a performer Restout appeared at Landowska's public master classes in France and the Netherlands and in recitals in Paris, Strasbourg and elsewhere.
Restout and Landowska, who was of Polish and Jewish origin, escaped St.-Leu, France during the Nazi advance and arrived in the United States in 1941 at Ellis Island on the day of the Pearl Harbor attack.
After Landowska's death in 1959, Restout continued to teach at the Landowska Center, their home in Lakeville, Connecticut, where she also edited Landowska's writings.
Restout was a member of the faculties (at large) of the Barlow School in Amenia, NY, the Peabody Conservatory of Music, the The Hartt School, Mississippi Southern University, and Purchase College.
Later in life, Restout was organist at St. Mary's Roman Catholic church in Lakeville, Connecticut.
Restout was awarded the Amicus Poloniae citation by the government of Poland.
Publications
- Landowska, Wanda. Landowska on music. Collected, edited, and translated by Denise Restout, assisted by Robert Hawkins. New York, Stein and Day [1964]
- Recording: Wanda Landowska plays Bach; Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) Wanda Landowska, harpsichord, with Denise Restout, harpsichord continuo, conducted by Eugène Bigot Recorded 1936, 1938 1947 (Pearl #169, July 23, 2002)