Jane Evrard

At fourteen she won a première médaille for solfège and entered the studio of Augustin Lefort, where she met fellow student and violinist Gaston Poulet, whom she married in 1912.

[4] Through his contacts they played concerts at the Deauville casino, performances of the L'Arlésienne at the Théâtre de l'Odéon, and in the orchestra that Alphonse Hasselmans assembled in 1910.

[5] In 1930, encouraged by critic Émile Vuillermoz, who had been impressed by her work with amateur musicians,[5] Evrard founded an all-woman orchestra, the Orchestre féminin de Paris, consisting of twenty-five string players.

Because it was difficult to find women woodwind and brass players,[c] the orchestra performed as a string ensemble, only rarely engaging male musicians.

[9] As the only string ensemble in Paris in the 1930s and therefore without competition for programming the large repertoire written for their configuration, they developed specialties in both early and modern music.

Several of them, including Albert Roussel, Joaquín Rodrigo, Florent Schmitt, and occasional guest artist Marguerite Roesgen-Champion, wrote pieces especially for the orchestra, who gave their premiere performances.

Two dozen elegant young women, all virtuosos with the bow, create a spectacle infinitely pleasing to the eye and the ear.