A native of Barcelona, ALICIA DE LARROCHAmade her first public appearance in 1929, at the age of six. She was a student of Frank Marshall, the head of the Marshall Academy, founded in her native city by Enrique Granados. De Larrocha serves today as the third President of the Academy. In 1947 she first toured outside Spain, and she made her British debut in 1953, followed by her American debut in 1955 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Alfred Wallenstein. Although she subsequently received the Paderewski Prize in London, as well as international honors for her early recordings of Granados and Albéniz, it was in 1965 when she returned to the United States that she established a reputation as one of the world’s great artists.

De Larrocha's 2001/2002 season includes orchestral engagements with the New York Philharmonic, the New York Chamber Symphony, and the Cincinnati, Atlanta and Colorado Symphonies, as well as recitals in New York, San Francisco, Miami, Toronto, Vancouver, and Washington, D.C., among other cities.

For BMG Classics (RCA Victor), de Larrocha has recorded the complete Mozart piano sonatas and a series of Mozart piano concertos. She has won four Grammy Awards, one in 1974 for Albéniz Iberia, one in 1975 for the two concertos of Maurice Ravel, one in 1989 for her digital re-recording of Iberia, and one in 1991 for her RCA recording of Granados’ Goyescas, which was also awarded the Grand Prix du Disque. In 1978, de Larrocha received the Dutch Edison Prize for her complete London/Decca recording of Goyescas, which also won the 1979 Deutsche Schallplatten Prize. Her most recent release on RCA is a Mendelssohn/Chopin recital featuring the Songs Without Words and the Polonaise-Fantasie.

Musical America honored Alicia de Larrocha at the 50th anniversary of her debut by naming her 1979’s “Musician of the Year.” In 1982, the City of Barcelona awarded her the Medallo d’oro for artistic merit, and in that same year the Spanish National Assembly voted to award her its gold medal “al merito en las bellas artes,” bestowed on her by King Juan Carlos. De Larrocha is also a Fine Arts Member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Madrid and Granada as well as the Fine Arts Academy of Sant Jordi in Barcelona. In 1994, she was awarded the Principe de Asturias Prize, and in 1999, the Premio Fundación Guerrero de la Música Española.