Elizabeth Fontan-Binoche

Elizabeth Fontan-Binoche was born in Paris on May 26, 1926, into a family of artists. Her niece is the actress Juliette Binoche.

She began learning the harp at the age of six with Marcel Tournier, the leading French harpist and composer of his generation, and studied with him at the Paris Conservatoire, where he taught until 1948. She was among his last pupils, and in her later years she was described as the last living student of Tournier.

In 1959 she won a prize at the first edition of the International Harp Contest in Israel, which established her international reputation. She went on to give recitals across Europe, the United States, Canada, South America, Japan, Tunisia and New Caledonia, and served as principal harp of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice. A live recording of a recital she gave in Kyoto won the National Award in Japan in 2006.

She was equally known as a teacher. She taught at the Conservatoire de Boulogne, the Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique in Lyon and the Conservatoire de Nice before moving to the Conservatoire of Antibes towards the end of her career. She led master classes and summer courses in France, Italy, Japan and the United States, including at the Curtis Institute of Music, and was honorary president of the Italian harp association Voliere Magique, named after a Tournier piece. She served on the juries of competitions including the USA International Harp Competition and the Concours Francais de la Harpe.

She performed into her late eighties, including a 2014 recital in Rovereto, Italy, at 87. Her recordings include the music of Marcel Tournier, a Kyoto recital released in 2003, Concert a Quatre with the Harpe Riviera Quatuor, and flute and harp recordings with Jacques Castagner.

She was married to Francois Fontan, who died before her. They had two sons, Jean-Paul and Olivier, and she had grandchildren and great-grandchildren. In her later life she lived at La Colle-sur-Loup in the Alpes-Maritimes, near Nice.

Elizabeth Fontan-Binoche died at La Colle-sur-Loup on Friday, October 9, 2026, at the age of 100. Her family announced her death in a notice in Le Figaro, describing her as a harpist, concert performer and teacher. The cause of death was not made public.

Her funeral was scheduled for Wednesday, October 14, 2026, at 2 p.m. at the church of Saint-Jacques-le-Majeur in La Colle-sur-Loup, with burial in the family's presence at the old cemetery of La Celle-Saint-Cloud in the Yvelines on October 16.

Fontan-Binoche was regarded as a living link to the Paris harp school of the early twentieth century. Through decades of teaching in French conservatoires and master classes abroad, she trained generations of harpists, several of whom became principal harpists and soloists, among them Marie-Pierre Langlamet, Isabelle Perrin, Rossitza Milevska and Alexander Boldachev. In her centenary year Swiss radio RSI devoted a programme to her, describing a musician with a crystal-clear memory and a technique that had stayed intact.