Danses Autour du Monde - Alto Sax and Piano

Fernande Decruck, born Fernande Breilh (1896-1954), was a French composer, organ recitalist, and teacher.  After some years of instruction at the Toulouse Conservatory, she entered the Paris Conservatory as a student of organ and composition.  In Paris Fernande Breilh met Maurice Decruck, also a student, and they were married in 1924.  Their children were Jeannine (1925), Michel (1926), and Alain (1937).

Fernande lived in the United States from 1928 to 1933, during which time Maurice was a bassist in the New York Philharmonic and also played the occasional saxophone part, until a hand injury forced his withdrawal from instrumental playing in 1932.  In America she gave organ recitals featuring extensive improvisations and began composing for the saxophone.  In France she expanded her range of compositions and taught harmony and solfege at the Toulouse Conservatory from 1937 to 1942.  Several of her compositions were published in France between 1943 and 1947, although a number of saxophone works composed after 1943 are now lost. 

Fernande and her yougest son Alain lived in Massachusetts for a few months during 1947-48.  She and Maurice divorced in 1950.  She suffered a stroke in 1952.  In recent years her music, especially her saxophone music, has received a new lease on life through recordings.