Basic Facts
Born: August 8, 1857, Paris, France
Died: April 18, 1944, Monte-Carlo, Monaco
Type of Performer: Composer
Genre: Classical
About Cecile Chaminade
Cecile Chaminade was born in 1857 in Paris to a musical family. She started learning piano early, before teaching herself to compose at age seven. She studied privately with faculty from the Paris Conservatory (her father forbade her to formally enroll in classes) and she starting giving recitals of her own music in 1878. She toured internationally, giving concerts in Vienna and London, as well as in the United States at Carnegie Hall and others. In 1888, she was commissioned to write a ballet, Callirhoë, which became one of the major pieces in her catalog. In 1913, she became the first female composer to earn the title of Chevalier in the Legion of Honor.
In total, Chaminade wrote over four hundred works, and all of them were published. However, she did not achieve the same level of fame during her lifetime as some of her male counterparts, due to entrenched stereotypes about femininity and music. Her piano works and salon music pieces were widely popular, but her more serious works, including her piano concerto, were not as popular - certain critics denounced them as too "masculine". Her popularity declined in the twentieth century as modernism took root in art and she died in relative obscurity in Monaco in 1944. However, her music has experienced a recent resurgence in popularity, and her flute concerto is a staple in the flute repertoire.
Listen
Concertino for Flute, performed by the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra
L'anneau d'argent (The Little Silver Ring), performed by Anne Sofie van Otter and Bengt Forsberg
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