Alphonse Hasselmans

The Hasselmans are described in New Groves as a 'Belgian-French family of musicians': Josef was a conductor, harpist and violinist; his son was Alphonse Jean (the 'Jean' is bracketed and thus usually dropped: this site won't bother with it further, anyway) was born in Liège in 1845 and was to die in Paris in 1912, so the description would be particularly appropriate in his case!

He studied harp with his father in the first instance; but thereafter with various musicians in Strasbourg, Brussels and Paris. He was harpist at a Brussels theatre and gave eight successful solo concerts in Paris in 1877 which triggered appointments as solo harpist with assorted Parisian orchestras, including at the Conservatoire, Opéra and Opéra-Comique. He became professor of harp at the Conservatoire in 1884.

He inspired much new harp-writing by others at the turn of the 20th Century and wrote around 50 pieces of his own, including transcriptions of others' works for harp performance. His output is accordingly modest, but technically sound. His daughter was Gabriel Fauré's mistress, if we're looking for musical connections!

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