Colette Maze: Angle of Joy

 https://www.npr.org/2021/09/20/1036622670/107-year-old-french-pianist-colette-maze-new-album

Maze, born on June 16, 1914, says her mother was severe and unloving. So she turned to music for the affection she lacked at home.

"I always preferred composers who gave me tenderness," she says. "Like [Robert] Schumann and [Claude] Debussy. Music is an affective language, a poetic language. In music there is everything — nature, emotion, love, revolt, dreams, it's like a spiritual food."

Maze says she believes there is a guiding force in our lives. The fact that she grew up just steps away from Paris' prestigious Ecole Normale de Musique, is one example. She auditioned for, and was granted, a spot with its director, legendary pianist Alfred Cortot. Maze's other early instructors included virtuoso pianists Nadia Boulanger and Jeanne Blanchard. (She remembers Blanchard had tiny hands, just like her).

You have to look at life from all sides, she says, and there's always an angle of joy.

"Youth is inside us," she says. "If you appreciate what's beautiful around you, you will find a sense of wonder in it."