Alicia de Larrocha

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Alicia de Larrocha y de la Calle (born 23 May 1923) is considered one of the greatest pianists of her generation.

She was born in Barcelona, Spain and began studying piano with Frank Marshall in Spain at age three. She performed her first concert at the age of six and had her orchestral debut at the age of 11. She began touring internationally in 1947 and made numerous recordings of solo piano repertoire. She is best known for her recordings of the music of Granados and Albéniz. She is generally seen as an advocate of Spanish and Catalonian works. She won her first Grammy Award in 1975 and has won as recently as 1992 at almost seventy.

As of 1995 she was still active as a pianist, but conceded having to make adjustments with age. For a pianist her hands are small, her height in general is under 150 centimetres, but have grown smaller with age. This led her to have to quit playing Rachmaninoff.

She received the Prince of Asturias Award of Arts in 1994.