Presti, Ida

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Presti, Ida

Presti, Ida , French guitarist; b. Suresnes, May 31, 1924; d. Rochester, N.Y., April 24, 1967. She learned to play the guitar and the piano by the time she was 6. Soon thereafter she made her public debut as a guitarist in Paris. At age 10, she made her first recording. Following her appearance with the Société des Concerts du Conservatoire in Paris in 1936, she toured widely. Upon her marriage to Alexandre Lagoya , the couple formed a notable guitar duo in 1950 and toured the world. Presti died while on a tour with her husband in the U.S. Presti and Lagoya made transcriptions of keyboard works by several great masters of the past, and also commissioned works by such contemporary composers as Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Rodrigo, and Jolivet.

—Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire