Colette Maze at age 18. Photo courtesy of the Maze family.
In Friday’s (12/8) New York Times, Clay Risen writes, “When the French composer Claude Debussy died at his home in Paris in 1918 … one of his youngest fans lived just a few blocks away. Colette Saulnier, not yet 4, was already learning the rudiments of music, and even at that age she was drawn to the work of her famous neighbor…. Mrs. Maze would go on to become an accomplished pianist and teacher. But it was only in the late 1990s, when she was over 80, that her son persuaded her to begin recording commercially. What followed was one of the most surprising second acts in classical music history: seven albums … Maze, who was widely considered the world’s oldest recording pianist, died on Nov. 19 in [Paris] … She was 109. Her son, Fabrice Maze, confirmed the death…. Even after she retired from teaching in 1984, Mrs. Maze continued to play four hours or more a day. Her son later began encouraging her to record an album … Her first album, a recording of Debussy’s preludes, was released in 2004, the year she turned 90…. Critics praised her technique and her supple interpretations … She told NPR in 2021, ‘In music there is everything—nature, emotion, love, revolt, dreams; it’s like a spiritual food.’ ”
