Biography

Käbi Alma Laretei (July 14, 1922 – October 31, 2014) was an Estonian-Swedish concert pianist. Her father Heinrich Laretei was a diplomat in the service of the Republic of Estonia as ambassador to Sweden; when the Soviet Union occupied Estonia in 1940, the family did not return to Estonia. Her piano teacher was Maria-Luisa Strub-Moresco, who had an indirect influence on the artistic choices of Laretei's later husband, Ingmar Bergman. Laretei had a long and distinguished career as a pianist, and in the 1960s she played to packed halls in the United Kingdom, Sweden, West Germany, and the United States, including Carnegie Hall. From 1950 to 1959, Laretei was married to Gunnar Staern, with whom she had a daughter, Linda (born 1955).