Before 1900

Winnaretta Singer wanted to give priority to her favorite music, especially the modern one. Before 1900, her musical tastes were already sophisticated. The first concerts she organised in her wooden atelier located in the rue Cortambert in Paris took place in the late 1880s. She had a beautiful Cavaillé-Coll organ she used to play in her atelier.

In comparison to other well-known salons, such as the one of the baroness Alphonse de Rotchshild, or the countesses Greffuhle, de Béarn or de Taskin, Winnaretta’s first events proposed a musical programme excellence with brilliant musicians. Composers from the former generation were often invited to present their works: Emmanuel Chabrier, Fauré, Reynaldo Hahn… But her love for modern music was so strong that she helped younger composers of the avant-garde most of her lifetime: Satie, Ravel, Stravinsky, Manuel de Falla, Francis Poulenc, Georges Auric, Germaine Tailleferre, Darius Milhaud, Louis Durey, Arthur Honegger.