Person
Bosch, Luisa (1880-1961)Alternative forms (other languages) Other forms
Altstätten (San Galo, Suiza) 1880 - Barcelona (España) 1961
Spanish-born Swiss harpist, educator and composer.
Born in Altstätten (Switzerland), in 1880 and died in Barcelona in 1961. Her parents were both Spanish. She began studying at the Conservatoire de Musique de Genève with Émile Jaques-Dalcroze, Otto Barblan, G. Jumbert, Delaye-Fuch and Enrico Tramonti, and continued her training at the Conservatoire de Paris under Alphonse Hasselmans and harpist Gabriel Verdalle. She was also a student of Felipe Pedrell in Spain. Bosch wrote her first method for harp in 1907, and the following year she began giving classes at the Conservatoire de Genève and in Lausanne, Neuchâtel and Bern. After accompanying the contralto Lina Kalk, in 1926 she contacted Manuel de Falla to ask if he had any pieces for the harp and share her interest in arranging a festival with the composer's works. Luisa was a member of the Société des Femmes Artistes Musiciennes and of the Société des Auteurs, Compositeurs et Editeurs de Musique since 1927. That same year, she received an honorary award at the Exposition Internationale de la Musique for her collection of antique instruments. She moved to Barcelona, where she made her debut in 1930 at a harp and piano recital accompanied by Juan Molinari, playing pieces by composers such as Christoph Willibald Gluck, Joseph Haydn, Jean-Philippe Rameau, Franz Schubert, Claude Debussy and Charles-Marie Widor. During the 1930s, Bosch taught at Academia Marshall and Institut Musical Casals and directed the Asociación de Música Antigua. She presented "Septuor", a composition for seven harps, in Barcelona in 1933, and wrote other pieces like "Pièces pour chant et harpe" and "Pétite prélude pour harpe". In 1936 she toured extensively through France, Switzerland and Germany. Bosch contributed to "Revista Musical Catalana", "El Informador" and "Música" and published other works, including "Méthode d’exercises pour la harpe" (1910) and "L'arpa a través del temps" (1930).