Lina Lalandi (Harpsichord, Clavichord)

Born: 1920 - Athens. Greece

The Greek-born English harpsichordist, Lina Lalandi, graduated with Honours from the Athens Conservatory. She also studied pivately harpsichord and singing in England.

Lina Lalandi made her debut at the Royal Festival Hall in 1954. She had an international career as harpsichordist, appearing in London, Paris, Geneva and Athens; also on Radio and TV. As an harpsichordist she had a penchant for J.S. Bach and François Couperin in the days before there was much demand for them.

In 1962, Lina Lalandi founded the English Bach Festival Trust in 1962 with her late husband, Ralph Emery. She is the director, chief administrator and responsible for research and all programme planning. After the creation of the English Bach Festival, she found herself putting on approximately 40 concerts for each Festival, and consequently she gradually stopped playing.

Recently, Lina Lalandi-Emery started playing again, and had some of her early recordings digitally remastered. Three CD’s have now been produced, including a new CD of J.S. Bach's French Overture (BWV 831), as a tribute to the life's work of her late husband, Ralph Emery. All profits from CD sales go to the English Bach Festival Trust, a registered charity, working to promote the careers of young artists, performers and composers in the pursuit of excellence.

Lina Lalandi-Emery was decorated by HM the Queen in 1975 as Officer of the British Empire, in 1979 was awarded in the Salon des Nobles, Château de Versailles, the French decoration of Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, by Greece, the Gold Cross of the Phoenix and the Great Prize of Music by the Union Greek Theatre and Music Critics and Athens Municipality.

Source: English Bach Festival Website; International Who's Who in Music & Musicians' Directory (13^th Edition, 1992/93); The Independent (July 17, 1993)
Contributed by Aryeh Oron (December 2010)

Lina Lalandi: Short Biography | Recordings of Instrumental Works | English Bach Festival

Links to other Sites

EBF - About the English Bach Festival

MUSIC / If it's baroque, don't mend it: For 30 years the English Bach Festival has been sailing under false colours. Lina Lalandi admits all to Mark Pappenheim [The Independent)