Lily Laskine

The daughter of Russian immigrants to Paris, harpist Lily Laskine was drawn into music by both parents. Her mother was a pianist, and she took up the piano at first. But she took more strongly to the harp, and soon she was practicing the instrument, at her mother's behest, for six hours a day. All one needs to play the harp, Laskine once said, is good fingers and a sacrificed childhood. At age eight, after some jawboning on her mother's part opened the doors, Laskine started lessons with Paris Conservatoire professor Alphonse Hasselmans, and three years later she enrolled at t...