(piano)
Frank Laffitte , who is of French extraction though British by birth, might have studied in Russia had it not been for the war of 1914. The Russian conductor Safonov heard him play when he was only thirteen and was so impressed that he wanted to take him as his pupil to Russia. The war made this impossible, so Laffitte continued his studies in London. Later he went to France and came under the influence of that great French conductor, Pierre Monteux.