Biography

Cecile Chaminade was a virtuoso pianist of remarkable ability as well as the most successful of all women composers. Born in the hamlet of Le Vesinet near Paris, in 1861, Mlle. Chaminade gave the early evidences of musical talent that was marked by many contemporary composers. Being only eight years old she wrote some pieces of church music, and gained the attention of Bizet, who was impressed by the child's abilities and advised a thorough musical education. She studied various branches of music with Félix Le Couppey, Gabriel Savard, Martin Marsick, and finally composition with Benjamin Godard. She gave her first concert when she was eighteen. Since that time her numerous compositions of many kinds had attracted attention and won wide popularity as she brought them forward in the course of many concert tours throughout Europe and America. Her many pianoforte pieces, a great number of songs, and a сoncertstuck with orchestra were among her most successful works. She also essayed the larger forms of music with several orchestral suites, a “Symphonic Lyric” with chorus and orchestra, called “Les Amazones” trios for piano and strings, a ballet “Callirhoe” (produced with great success in Marseilles in 1888), and the opera comique “La Sevillane”.

Cecile Chaminade contracted to record her playing exclusively for the Duo-Art Reproducting Piano.

Ref.: “Duo-Art Piano Music”. A Classified Catalog of Interpretations of the World’s Best Music Recorded by More Than Two Hundred and Fifty Pianists for the Duo-Art Reproducing Piano. The Aeolian Company. Aeolian Hall, New York.
Copyright, 1927 by The Aeolian Company New York