Geneviève Joy

Geneviève Joy (French: [ʒənvjɛv ʒwa]; 4 October 1919 – 27 November 2009)[1][2] was a French classical and modernist pianist who, at the end of World War II in 1945, formed a critically acclaimed duo-piano partnership[3] with Jacqueline Robin which lasted for forty-five years, until 1990. The composer Henri Dutilleux, whom she married in 1946, dedicated his Piano Sonata to her, which she recorded for Erato Records in 1988.

A native of the small commune of Bernaville in the Somme department in Northern France region of Picardy,[4] She was the daughter of Lina Breton from Bernaville and her Irish husband Charles Joy who served with the British Army during World War I.[5] Geneviève Joy was a piano child prodigy who was accepted to the world-renowned Conservatoire de Paris in 1932 at the age of 12.

In 1982, she served on the jury of the Paloma O'Shea Santander International Piano Competition.[6]

She died in her sleep at a Paris hospital eight weeks after her 90th birthday[1] from cancer, and was subsequently buried in Montparnasse Cemetery.[7] Her husband, Henri, was buried in the same grave in 2013.