Henri Ghys

Esprit Charles Henri Ghys (17 March 1839 – 24 April 1908) was a French pianist, organist, composer and arranger of Belgian parentage, who is primarily known today as the first piano teacher of Maurice Ravel. Life and music Henri (sometimes: Henry) Ghys was born in Toulon, department Var, in the south of France. His father was the Belgian violinist and composer Joseph Ghys (Ghent, 1801 – Saint Petersburg, 1848). He studied with Antoine Marmontel at the Paris Conservatory where he gained a First Prize for his piano playing in 1854 aged 15, having won a Second Prize in the previous year, and a “1er Accessit” on the organ in 1855. For five years starting 31 May 1882, Ghys taught the piano to the young Maurice Ravel. Ravel’s biographer Arbie Orenstein related that he preserved in his library a copy of the Ghys composition Air du Roi Louis XIII “with the following dedication: ’transcribed specially for four hands, for his little pupil Maurice Ravel, by his professor Henry Ghys, Paris, August 30, 1882.’” Ravel seems to have remained in touch with Ghys even after the period of tuition: On 15 February 1892 they performed together the Andante and Variations, Op. 46 for two pianos by Robert S