1. Yvette Horner was a French accordionist, pianist and composer known for performing with the Tour de France during the 1950s and 1960s.
22 Facts About Yvette Horner
1. 2.
Yvette Horner's mother encouraged her to play music, and her teacher, Marguerite Lacoste, taught her her first notes on the piano.
3.
Yvette Horner studied music at the conservatory of Tarbes, then at the conservatory of Toulouse where, at the age of 11, she obtained a first prize in piano.
4.
Yvette Horner's mother convinced her to abandon her instrument for the chromatic accordion, explaining to her that there were no female accordionists, and that she would then be able to sustain herself.
5.
Yvette Horner played in Pyrenean casinos before moving to Paris, where she was a student of Robert Breard.
6.
In 1938, Yvette Horner participated, with Freddy Balta and Andre Lips, in the first accordion world championships organized in Paris, at the Moulin de la Galette, by the Confederation internationale des accordeonistes.
7.
Yvette Horner gave her first concert in 1947 in Paris and, in 1948, she was the first woman to win the Coupe mondiale de l'accordeon.
8.
Yvette Horner was awarded the Grand Prix International d'Accordion de Paris in 1953.
9.
Yvette Horner played on a podium at the finish of each stage.
10.
Yvette Horner was the queen of the Six Days of Paris in 1954.
11.
Yvette Horner died on 11 June 2018, at the age of 95.
12.
Yvette Horner is buried in the Saint-Jean cemetery in Tarbes.
13.
Nine months after her death, a bronze statue of Yvette Horner was placed on her funerary monument.
14.
Yvette Horner asked sculptor Yves Lacoste in 1994 to create this piece as a tribute to her public, her parents, her husband and those who helped her achieve fame.
15.
The final piece is life-size, with a Yvette Horner carried by applauding hands, emerging from a cocoon and grasping an accordion, a direct replica of the one she used for one of her favourite pieces.
16.
Yvette Horner expressed her regret at not having had children with her husband, who died in 1986.
17.
Yvette Horner auctioned off personal items at the Hotel Drouot, including her collection of Jean Paul Gaultier dresses.
18.
Yvette Horner is an honorary citizen of Tarbes and Nogent-sur-Marne.
19.
In 2008, the musical show La Madone des dancings, les mille vies d'Yvette Horner, adapted by Eudes Labrusse and staged by Dominique Verrier, was presented at Avignon as part of the "off" festival.
20.
The character of Yvette Horner is portrayed by the actress Antoinette Moya.
21.
Yvette Horner received the commandeur de l'ordre national du Merite necklet on April 17,2002, given by the Minister of Culture and Communication Catherine Tasca.
22.
Yvette Horner was named commandeur de la Legion d'honneur on 22 April 2011 in the portfolio of the Ministry of Culture and Communication, decorated on 28 September 2011 by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.