Women in Music: Ida Presti

There's no question that the world of music is a male-dominated field. Time and time again, we as students and performers carefully study the great works of Western European men such as Bach, Mozart, Chopin, and Beethoven.

But what about women composers and performers? Why are they left out in our musical studies? This disparity can also be seen in the classical guitar scene. The silence that women faced and continue to face in the music field is deafening. It is my hope to shed some light on the incredible contributions that women have made to music.

The female musician I would like to talk about today is the French guitar performer and composer, Ida Presti. Born in 1924, Presti began her musical training at a young age. She studied guitar performance with her father, Claude Montagnon and music theory from guitarist Mario Maccaferri. Presti performed her first full concert at the age of 10 and soon was considered a child prodigy. By the age of 13, she recorded her first album with the HMV record label and by the age of 14, she had played for the great Andrea Segovia and appeared in the French film La Petite Chose “acting” as a guitar player.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rM3SLRwfJ3k

Ida Presti’s professional performing career was vast and expansive. Presti was the first guitarist in France to premier Joaquin Rodrigo’s famous guitar concerto, Concierto de Aranjuez. This performance was brodcasted live across the country of France introducing many people to classical guitar for the first time. After her first marriage, she met guitarist Alexandre Lagoya who she will marry and form the Duo Presti-Lagoya. During this time, Segovia worked very hard to expand the repertoire of the classical guitar but still was seen by the public as a folk instrument. But in the same spirit of Segovia, the Duo Presti-Lagoya continued to perform, arrange, and compose classical guitar duo music that would be performed still today.

Not only did Presti compose/arrange classical guitar duo pieces, but she also composed her own solo guitar works. She had an incredibly unique approach to guitar making fingering choices that were unlike anything other guitarists were doing at the time. Many of her fingering choices allows the notes of scales to overlap each other creating fluid motion in her melodies. She also created her own technique for the right hand by plucking the string from the right side of the nail in contrast to what most guitarists were doing at the time by playing on the left side of the fingernail. Some of her most well-known compositions include her Six Etudes, Danse Rythmique, Segovia, and Etude du Matin.

Amid Ida’s and Alexander’s duo concert performances, Ida fell ill after performing a concert with the St. Louis Symphony. Thinking it was nothing, the duo traveled to their next concert in Rochester, New York and Ida fell ill again. Shortly after being admitted to the hospital, Ida went under surgery and died on the operating table in 1967. At the age of 42, the world was shocked at the surprising passing of a guitar titan.

Though her passing came much too soon, Ida Presti’s contributions to the guitar can still be seen to this day. Her solo and duo compositions are still regarded as repertoire standards. She is considered to be one of the most influential classical guitarist of the 20th century and continues to inspire future generations of guitarists.

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