Jeanne Loriod

Born in 1928, Jeanne Loriod was best known for playing an electronic instrument called an "ondes martenot" for numerous film scores, ranging from Lawrence of Arabia to Mars Attacks! Loriod's young sister, Yvonne, was a pianist who was married to renowned composer Olivier Messiaen, and the three often collaborated. But it was her mastery of the aforementioned ondes martenot (which translated means "Martenot waves," and creates electronic waves from a series of transistors, a keyboard, and a ribbon attached to a ring on the player's forefinger) that brought Loriod such raves as ...