The Polish harpsichordist who redefined her instrument’s contemporary repertoire passes at 77.

Polish harpsichord player Elisabeth Chojnacka (born Elżbieta) has died in Paris at the age of 77. Known for collaborating with contemporary composers like Ligeti, Gorecki, Xanakis and Nyman, she leaves the harpsichord repertoire richer by around 100 works.

Chojnacka was born ten days after the outbreak of World War II – on September 10, 1939 – in Warsaw where she went on to study, graduating from the Fryderyk Chopin Music Academy in 1962. Despite restrictions of movement across the Iron Curtain, she received permission to travel to Paris where she studied with the Belgian harpsichordist and composer Aimée van de Wiele, herself a pupil of  Polish-French harpischordist Wanda Landowska.

In 1968, Chojnacka won first place in the Viotti Competition in Vercelli, after which she settled permanently in Paris and started out on a successful international career. Like Landowska – for whom Poulenc wrote his Concert Champêtre – and Van de Wiele before her, Chojnacka recognised the importance of building a contemporary repertoire for the harpsichord, but unlike her teachers she formed relationships with a group of composers, many of whom passed through Paris in the 1960s, 70s and...