Claudette Sorel Collection

Claudette Sorel was born in Paris of French-Hungarian parentage and was trained in the U.S. by Olga Samaroff, Rudolf Serkin and Mieczyslaw Horszowski. At the age of ten, she made her Town Hall debut in New York and, the following year, performed with the New York Philharmonic. Sorel was a graduate of the Juilliard School, the Curtis Institute, and Columbia University. Sorel made more than 2000 concert, recital and festival appearances, playing with 200 major orchestras. Her programs included premieres of music by Lukas Foss, Peter Mennin, Paul Creston and Harold Morris, demonstrating her commitment to contemporary music. Her public performance career came to an end following an injury sustained from slipping on ice at the State University of New York at Fredonia in 1974.

Sorel was an accomplished educator, and held professorships at the University of Kansas, Ohio State University and the State University of New York at Fredonia, where she was chairperson of the piano department for 13 years and the first woman to be named Distinguished Professor. She also started the Sorel Organization, which was dedicated to supporting women in music. Sorel was a strong advocate for women pianists, writing an article for Music Journal in 1968 arguing for equal opportunities for women. She was a gifted writer, also publishing several books. Sorel died in 1999.