Wanda Aleksandra Landowska (5 July 1879 – 16 August 1959)[1] was a Polish harpsichordist and pianist whose performances, teaching, writings and especially her many recordings played a large role in reviving the popularity of the harpsichord in the early 20th century.

She began playing piano at the age of four, and studied at the Warsaw Conservatory with the senior Jan Kleczyński and Aleksander Michałowski.

[4] After eloping with and marrying Polish folklorist and ethnomusicologist Henry Lew in 1900 in Paris, she taught piano at the Schola Cantorum there (1900–1912).

[5] These were large, heavily built harpsichords with a 16-foot stop (a set of strings an octave below normal pitch) and owed much to piano construction.

In 1925, she established the École de Musique Ancienne based in Paris:[9] from 1927, her home in Saint-Leu-la-Forêt became a center for the performance and study of old music.

[10] After leaving Saint-Leu in 1940, sojourning in Banyuls-sur-Mer, a commune in southern France, where her friend, sculptor Aristide Maillol was living, they sailed from Lisbon to the United States.

[10] Her 1942 performance of Bach's Goldberg Variations at New York's Town Hall was the first occasion in the 20th century when the piece was played on the harpsichord, the instrument for which it had been written.