Marguerite Roesgen-Champion

1894 (GENEVA) – 1976

The composer Marguerite Roesgen-Champion was an extraordinary personality. Quite apart from the fact that she was able to make her way in a profession that remained heavily male-dominated well into 20th century, she was also one of the driving forces behind the rediscovery of the musical traditions of the late Baroque and of the harpsichord as a solo instrument. Roesgen-Champion published more than 300 works in all manner of genres, gave keyboard lessons in both Geneva and Paris, and was also a virtuoso in great demand across all of Europe.

She studied with Marie Panthès, Émile Jaques-Dalcroze and Ernest Blochin Geneva, though her musical language was significantly influenced by the French Impressionists, especially Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel. Roesgen-Champion made numerous recordings for French-Swiss radio of her own works and those of others, and they provide ample testimony to her talents. Audiences were thrilled by her solo performances on both the piano and the harpsichord. The piano concertos she played most often included those of Mozart and Haydn. She spent the greater part of her professional life in Paris, where she also exerted a major influence as a pedagogue, and where she was awarded the Ordre des Palmes Académiques.

Roesgen-Champion’s interests extended beyond music. She was particularly fascinated by the world’s different religions and the elements that they have in common, and travelled to many spiritually important sites in the Near East. In the 1960s, she published two books on the monotheistic religions that are still found in many theological libraries today.