Alexandre Goria
French composer, pianist and teacher
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Biography
Alexandre Goria was born in Paris and admitted as a student at the age of seven to the Conservatoire de Paris on 15 November 1830.[1] He had for piano teachers Adolphe-Francois Laurent (1796–1867), teacher of Jules Massenet, and Pierre-Joseph-Guillaume Zimmerman,[2] teacher of Charles-Valentin Alkan and César Franck, following a course of harmony under the direction of Victor Dourlen shortly thereafter.[1]
In 1834, he won second prize in the competition of piano,[3] being awarded the first prize the following year at the age of 12.[1] He later became répétiteur of the classes of competition in the conservatory.[4] His studies were completed in 1839.[1] Since then he engaged himself in teaching, becoming professor at the Maison Impériale de Saint-Denis in 1854 and a well-known figure thereafter in the music world by many different kinds of pieces for the piano.[5]
He was in very good terms with Bohemian composer Carl Czerny when he lived in Vienna for some time,[6] and was also a very close friend of the American composer Louis Moreau Gottschalk, who dedicated his composition Le Bananier to him.[7] Awarded with the Knight's Cross of the Order of Charles III by the Queen of Spain,[8] he died at the age of thirty-seven in Paris on 6 July 1860.[9] following a cerebral convulsion and an aneurysm. His young wife was to follow him a few years later herself suffering from a cruel and painful illness.[10]
Music
Goria wrote over a hundred works for piano, including studies, fantasias, whims, solo concerts, nocturnes of various themes, polkas, mazurkas, lullabies, ballads and "révêries".