Portrait of Alfred Cortot

Birthday profile

Alfred Cortot

Alfred Cortot, Swiss pianist and conductor (died 1962)

Born
September 26, 1877
Died
June 15, 1962
Zodiac sign
Libra
Birth year
1877

About Alfred Cortot

Alfred Denis Cortot was a French pianist, conductor, and teacher who was one of the most renowned classical musicians of the 20th century. A pianist of massive repertory, he was especially valued for his poetic insight into Romantic piano works, particularly those of Chopin, Franck, Saint-Saëns and Schumann. For Éditions Durand, he edited editions of almost all piano music by Chopin, Liszt and Schumann. In 1919, Cortot founded the École Normale de Musique de Paris. On 21 March 1925, Cortot made the world's first commercial electrical recording of classical music for the Victor Talking Machine Company in Camden, New Jersey: Chopin's Impromptus and Schubert's Litanei, issued on Victor's Red Seal label.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Alfred Cortot timeline

  1. In 1919, Cortot founded the École Normale de Musique de Paris.
  2. On 21 March 1925, Cortot made the world's first commercial electrical recording of classical music for the Victor Talking Machine Company in Camden, New Jersey: Chopin's Impromptus and Schubert's Litanei, issued on Victor's Red Seal label.

The world when Alfred Cortot was born

Alfred Cortot was born in 1877. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Headlines and milestones

  • Top headlineReconstruction ends — federal troops leave the South
  • Technology milestoneThomas Edison invents the phonograph
  • Notable inventionPhonograph — talking machine
  • World population~1.57B

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderRutherford B. Hayes
  • U.S. population44.2M

1877 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Alfred Cortot's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure18772026
Population44.2M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, MusicBrainz, Wikidata. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.