Germaine Tailleferre

Marcelle Germaine Tailleferre (; née Taillefesse; 19 April 18927 November 1983) was a French composer and the only female member of the group of composers known as Les Six. Biography Marcelle Germaine Taillefesse was born in Saint-Maur-des-Fossés, Val-de-Marne, France. As a young woman she changed her last name from “Taillefesse” to “Tailleferre” to spite her father, who had refused to support her musical studies. She began studying piano with her mother at age four and composed short works of her own. She was said to have a very good ear, even at a young age, accurately judging the playing techniques of others. Tailleferre studied at the Paris Conservatory, where she met Louis Durey, Francis Poulenc, Darius Milhaud, Georges Auric, and Arthur Honegger. She won prizes in several categories. Most notably, Tailleferre wrote 18 short works in the Petit livre de harpe de Madame Tardieu for Caroline Luigini, the Conservatory’s assistant professor of harp. With her new friends, she was soon associating with the artistic crowd in the Paris districts of Montmartre and Montparnasse, including the sculptor Emmanuel Centore, who later married her sister Jeanne. She also fraternized with artist