Olivier Messiaen and Yvonne Loriod-Messiaen letters to Madeleine Forte

Olivier Messiaen (December 10, 1908 – April 27, 1992) was a composer, organist, and teacher born in Avignon, France. He studied at the Paris Conservatory where he later taught and was the organist of La Sainte Trinite church in Paris. Messiaen is known for rhythmically complex music influenced by his Catholic faith and love of nature and ornithology.

Yvonne Loriod-Messiaen (January 20, 1924 – May 17, 2010), born in Houilles, France, was a pianist, teacher, composer, and known as the most important interpreter of Olivier Messaien's piano works. She was a student of Olivier Messaien at the Paris Conservatory and later became a professor at the Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique de Paris and in the 1940s she began premiering Olivier Messaien's compositions for the piano. Yvonne and Olivier married in 1961 following the death of his first wife.

Madeleine Forte is a French concert pianist with degrees from the Ecole Normale de Musique in Paris, The Juilliard School, and New York University where her dissertation was focused on the music of Olivier Messiaen.