Élie-Miriam Delaborde, born Eraïm-Miriam Delaborde, was a French pianist and composer.
Background
His birth was registered under the name of his mother Lina Eraïm Miriam, aged 38, of Nantes, and an unnamed father. Delaborde was generally believed to be the illegitimate son of the composer and pianist Charles-Valentin Alkan and one of his high-class married pupils.
Career
He was also renowned as a player of the pedal piano. Alkan"s withdrawal from public life coincided with the birth and upbringing of Delaborde. He was a pupil of Alkan, Ignaz Moscheles and Adolf von Henselt.
He made successful tours of England, Germany and Russia, and travelled with Henri Vieuxtemps and Henryk Wieniawski.
During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, he escaped from France to London with his 121 parrots and cockatoos. He also shared his rooms with two apes, one of which he named Isadora, in honour of Isidor Philipp.
In 1873 he was appointed professor at the Paris Conservatoire, where his pupils included Olga Samaroff (one-time wife of Leopold Stokowski) and Marie Poitevin, the first performer of César Franck"s Prelude, Chorale and Fugue in 1885. Other pupils were Carrier-Belleuse, Loire, Lefour, Haincelain and Van Barentzen.
Delaborde may have been indirectly responsible for Bizet"s death, which followed a swimming competition between the two, as a result of which Bizet caught a chill.
After Bizet"s death, Delaborde formed an alliance with his widow Geneviève, and they were even engaged to be married, but the engagement was broken official In 1901 he became engaged to a much younger pupil, but it also failed to result in marriage. His compositions included a youthful opera Maître Martin, the opéra-comique Louisiana Reine dort, the overture Attila, preludes, studies and fantasies for piano (including a Grande Fantaise on Bizet"s Carmen), a piano quintet, and songs.
There is also a Scherzetto for chromatic harp.
He also edited some of Alkan"s music Camille Saint-Saëns" Piano Concerto Number.
3 was dedicated to Delaborde. Delaborde died on 9 December 1913, aged 74, and was buried at Père Lachaise Cemetery on 11 December.