WOMAN OF THE YEAR

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Ana Maria Trenchi Bottazzi

Narrative: In 1963 Ana Maria Trenchi was on top of the world. She had worked very hard to be there and was now enjoying the fruits of her labor. The Young Argentine pianist had been a child prodigy, trained by her mother, further honed by five years of grueling study in Paris, with 35 hours of lessons a week, with the noted pianist Germaine Pinault who has studied with a disciple of Franz Liszt, while at the same time studying at the Paris Conservatory of Music.

At 23 years of age Ana was considered one of the top ten pianists of her generation. She had just completed an eight country concert tour throughout Europe and was on her way back to Paris to rest and visit friends. Unfortunately her life took a very sharp detour. Driving her Fiat as she always had, fast, while listening to the Fourth Ballade by Chopin, and thinking that she would include it in her debut in New York, the following year, she slammed into a truck on an icy road outside the city of Mons, Belgium. The tragic result, (according to the doctors of Mon's hospital) was a severe head trauma and numerous internal injuries which required hospitalization.

After being released from the hospital, she went to Paris, where she began to feel headaches, weakness in her muscles, she was becoming blind of her right eye, paralyzed of the right side and losing four of the five languages she knew. At the same time that she was developing meningitis.

After two months in the best Paris Hospital to cure the meningitis, she finally underwent a ten hours brain surgery, which helped - by removing fifteen clots from her brain among other things - with the many complications left from the accident. By the time that she was released from the hospital, after five months being there, she had lost besides her sense of smell and taste, her musical memory and her coordination was severely impaired. The doctor's prognosis was "It would be for the rest of her life."

Her doctor advised her to give up the dream of continuing a professional concert career. "Avoid the frustrations," he said. "You come from a family with money. Get married, have children and teach music like your mother."

Neither Ana Maria nor her mother could accept such a verdict, and her epic and inspirational struggle back to the concert began. Her entire life of thinking and believing in "YES, I CAN" did not allow her to believe in the doctor's words. However, she never dreamed that it would take her thirteen years of constant struggle to be able to play the piano again.

While she recuperated in Argentina, trying every day to learn to play the piano again and to be able to do regular things that now she could not, she met Bruno Bottazzi, a musical conductor with whom she attended a concert in Buenos Aires for their first date. They fell in love on the very first night they went out at that concert, while listening to Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No.2, one of the most romantic written concertos. Shortly thereafter, they decided to marry, but to make their life in New York. Since Ana Maria Trenchi has come to New York for the first time some few years before, she fell in love with the city, the country and the people and promised to herself that she would make her life in this city. They both came to live in this wonderful country and city, to become real Americans to try to pursue their musical careers, against the will and without the help of their wealthy families.

Title: President
Industry: Music Education
Type of Organization: Private Music School
Major Product/Service: Teaching music
Expertise: Dr. Trenchi Bottazzi has over 45 years experience. A concert pianist and former child prodigy, she was originally taught, beginning at age two, by her mother, the well-known Argentine Pedagogue, Ana Sieiro de Trenchi. She studied with famed teachers Nadia Boulanger, Yves Nat, and especially Germaine Pinault and also studied with Argentina’s most famous composer, Alberto Ginastera and later with Roger Sessions and Martin Canin. Many of her performances include 17 solo recitals at Carnegie Hall. Together with her husband Bruno, Dr. Trenchi Bottazzi founded the Germaine Pinault School of Music in Manhasset, New York and has been its director for the past 37 years. She established the International Piano Tape Competition.
Geographic Area of Distribution: International
Affiliations: Piano Teachers of New York
University/Degree: Ph.D., Music and Composition, University of Buenos Aires; D.M.A., The Julliard School; M.M., Piano, SUNY Stony Brook
Born: May 29, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Hobbies/Sports: Computers, family activities
Honors & Awards: Awarded the Premier Prix, Conservatoire National de Musique in Paris; Outstanding Woman of the Year, All Nations Women’s League, 1982; The United Nations’ Outstanding People From Central and South America Award, 1984; The Outstanding Hispanic Women Achievers Award, presented to her by New York Governor Mario Cuomo, 1993; Performed at the White House for President and Mrs. Bush; Gave a recital in 1993 at the Vatican for Pope John Paul II
Published Works: Autobiography, "To Live Again", published in five languages by Dodd, Mead, and Company; Has performed and given master classes and lectures all over the world - in 34 major cities in North America, South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia; 40 plus recordings of piano pieces