Presti biography

French musician (1924–1967)

Musical artist

Ida Presti (31 May 1924 – 24 April 1967) was a French classical guitarist and composer. She first came to prominence as a child prodigy, before maturing into what Alice Artzt has called "the greatest guitarist of the 20th century, and possibly of all time."^[1]

Life and career

Early life

Presti was born Yvette Montagnon in Suresnes, a suburb of Paris, France, to a French father and Sicilian mother.

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Her father, Claude Montagnon, was her first teacher, and he thought that "Ida Presti" sounded better than 'Yvette Montagnon' (Presti came from her mother's name, Olga-Gracia Lo Presti). She also studied harmony and music theory with guitarist and luthier Mario Maccaferri.

Presti played in public for the first time when she was eight, and gave her first full-length concert at the age of ten, on 28 April 1935 at the Salle Pleyel in Paris.^[2] Lauded for her prodigious talent by her teachers and