Anna

Anna Durà Batlle
Anna Aguilar
Barcelona , 1 March 1874
Barcelona , 4 March 1948
Performer and Teacher

Biography

Pianist and pedagogue

Known under the name of Anna Aguilar, she was a piano student of Joaquim Malats, wife of Miquel Llobet and friend and collaborator of Enric Granados and Isaac Albéniz. In 1893 she was admitted to the Conservatori del Liceu as a maestrina. In 1899 she was promoted to full professor of piano at the same institution and had Joan Viladomat as her student from 1906 to 1907.

At the end of the 19th century, the Durà-Llobet couple contacted the instrument maker Baldomer Cateura, inventor of the Cateura piano-pédalier. Anna Aguilar specialized in the performance with this system, which added four pedals to the standard instruments to obtain different sounds.

In 1900 she gave several concerts presenting the possibilities of pianos modified by Cateura. The programmes of these concerts included the premiere of Aparición by Enric Granados and music by J. S. Bach and D. Scarlatti.