Rita Strohl

Rita Strohl (born Aimée Marie Marguerite Mercédès Larousse La Villette) (8 July 1865 – 27 March 1941) was a French composer and pianist.

Born in Lorient (Morbihan), Rita Strohl was a gifted student and entered the Paris Conservatory at the age of 13, where she studied piano and solfège. She studied composition and voice privately. She was also a member of the Société des auteurs, compositeurs et éditeurs de musique. In 1884, she started publishing her chamber music trios, and the following year her Messe pour six voix, orchestre, et orgue résonne.

She is the author of several vocal, symphonic and chamber music pieces. She was endorsed by Camille Saint-Saëns, Vincent d’Indy and Gabriel Fauré. Jane Bathori sang her Chansons de Bilitis, and Pablo Casals played her music. Notably honoured by Pierre Louÿs and Henri Duparc, her music has gained renewed interest in recent years.

Rita Strohl was the daughter of the painter Élodie La Villette (1842–1917) and Jules La Rousse La Villette. She is also the niece of the painter Caroline Espinet (1844–1910).

In 1888, she married the sub lieutenant Émile Strohl (1863-1900) and took his name, giving birth to four children. After the death of Strohl, she married the master glassmaker Richard Burgsthal (pseudonym René Billa), a man almost 20 years her junior, in 1903.

She created the short-lived La Grange Theatre in Bièvres, Essonne in 1912 with her second husband and with the financial support of Odilon Redon, Gustave Fayet and other subscribers. It closed at the beginning of World War I. There, she performed lyrical works filled with mysticism and symbolism.

She divorced her second husband in 1930, and moved to Provence to live with her daughter and grandson.