Marguerite Wolff has dedicated her life to performing all around the world. Sir Arthur Bliss composed for her and she studied under Louis Kentner. Marguerite was born into a musical family in London in the 1920s. Her mother began teaching her the piano and would sit and practice with her daily. Soon she was getting up at six in the morning to practice, and continuing on her return from school. Her first public performance was in the Wigmore Hall when she was ten years-old, after she won a competition run by the piano firm Murdoch. At fifteen, she performed with Sir John Barbirolli. Later in her teens Marguerite went to study with Louis Kentner, who she continued to work with until he died in 1985.
During World War II Marguerite toured the country entertaining the troops with a group put together by Walter Legge of HMV. It gave her a taste for travel and, after the war, a concert she gave in Paris was her first experience of foreign travel. She has since toured around the world and is well-known for her beautiful couture gowns, the first of which was by Norman Hartnell. Still performing, in June 2002 Marguerite was awarded an OBE for services to music world-wide.
[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]
Favourite track: First act of Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Book: Liszt biography by Alan Walker Luxury: A piano