Marcel Paul Maximin Ciampi (29 May 1891 – 2 September 1980) was a French pianist and teacher. He held the longest tenure in the history of the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris and also became head of piano classes at the
Yehudi MenuhinYehudi Menuhin, Baron Menuhin, OM, KBE was a violinist and conductor who spent most of his performing career in the United Kingdom. He was born to Jewish parents in the United States, but became a citizen of Switzerland in 1970, and of the United Kingdom in 1985. He is commonly considered one of...
School in England. He worked with many of the great names of the 20th century, including
Claude DebussyAchille-Claude Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of Impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions...
,
Pablo CasalsPau Casals i Defilló , best known during his professional career as Pablo Casals, was a Spanish Catalan cellist and later conductor...
,
Jacques ThibaudJacques Thibaud was a French violinist.Thibaud was born in Bordeaux and studied the violin with his father before entering the Paris Conservatoire at the age of thirteen. In 1896 he jointly won the conservatory's violin prize with Pierre Monteux...
,
Georges EnescoGeorge Enescu was a Romanian composer, violinist, pianist, conductor and teacher.- Biography :...
,
Alfred CortotAlfred Denis Cortot was a Franco-Swiss pianist and conductor. He is one of the most popular 20th century musicians, especially renowned for his poetic insight in Romantic period piano works, particularly those of Chopin and Schumann.-Early life and education:Born in Nyon in the French-speaking...
,
Vlado Perlemuter-Biography:Vlado Perlemuter was born to a Polish Jewish family in Kovno, Russia . At the age of three, he lost the use of his left eye in an accident....
and
Lazare LévyLazare Lévy was a French pianist, composer and teacher who toured throughout Europe, in North Africa, Israel, the Soviet Union and Japan....
.
Ciampi was taught by
Louis DiémerLouis-Joseph Diémer was a French pianist and composer.- Life :Diémer studied at the Paris Conservatoire, winning premiers prix in piano, harmony and accompaniment, counterpoint and fugue, and solfège, and a second prix in organ...
at the Paris Conservatoire and won the first prize for pianoforte in 1909.
Marcel Paul Maximin Ciampi (29 May 1891 – 2 September 1980) was a French pianist and teacher. He held the longest tenure in the history of the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris and also became head of piano classes at the
Yehudi MenuhinYehudi Menuhin, Baron Menuhin, OM, KBE was a violinist and conductor who spent most of his performing career in the United Kingdom. He was born to Jewish parents in the United States, but became a citizen of Switzerland in 1970, and of the United Kingdom in 1985. He is commonly considered one of...
School in England. He worked with many of the great names of the 20th century, including
Claude DebussyAchille-Claude Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of Impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions...
,
Pablo CasalsPau Casals i Defilló , best known during his professional career as Pablo Casals, was a Spanish Catalan cellist and later conductor...
,
Jacques ThibaudJacques Thibaud was a French violinist.Thibaud was born in Bordeaux and studied the violin with his father before entering the Paris Conservatoire at the age of thirteen. In 1896 he jointly won the conservatory's violin prize with Pierre Monteux...
,
Georges EnescoGeorge Enescu was a Romanian composer, violinist, pianist, conductor and teacher.- Biography :...
,
Alfred CortotAlfred Denis Cortot was a Franco-Swiss pianist and conductor. He is one of the most popular 20th century musicians, especially renowned for his poetic insight in Romantic period piano works, particularly those of Chopin and Schumann.-Early life and education:Born in Nyon in the French-speaking...
,
Vlado Perlemuter-Biography:Vlado Perlemuter was born to a Polish Jewish family in Kovno, Russia . At the age of three, he lost the use of his left eye in an accident....
and
Lazare LévyLazare Lévy was a French pianist, composer and teacher who toured throughout Europe, in North Africa, Israel, the Soviet Union and Japan....
.
Ciampi was taught by
Louis DiémerLouis-Joseph Diémer was a French pianist and composer.- Life :Diémer studied at the Paris Conservatoire, winning premiers prix in piano, harmony and accompaniment, counterpoint and fugue, and solfège, and a second prix in organ...
at the Paris Conservatoire and won the first prize for pianoforte in 1909. He had a brilliant career as a concert pianist, appearing with orchestras in France, London, Amsterdam, Brussels, Prague, Warsaw, Sofia and Athens. He turned to teaching and had a particular influence on
Hephzibah MenuhinHephzibah Menuhin was an American-Jewish pianist and human rights campaigner. She was sister to the violinist Lord Menuhin and to the pianist, painter, and poet Yaltah Menuhin...
and her sister
Yaltah MenuhinYaltah Menuhin was an American pianist, artist and poet of the Menuhin family of musicians.-Early life:Yaltah was born of Russian Jewish parents in San Francisco, the youngest of three extraordinarily musical children. Her siblings were Yehudi Menuhin and Hephzibah Menuhin...
. He accepted Yaltah at age four, after hearing her play
Robert SchumannRobert Schumann, sometimes given as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic...
’s
KinderszenenKinderszenen , Opus 15, by Robert Schumann, is a set of thirteen pieces of music for piano written in 1838. In this work, Schumann provides us with his adult reminiscences of childhood. Schumann had originally written 30 movements for this work, but chose 13 for the final version...
.
His students also included
Yvonne LoriodYvonne Loriod is a French pianist, and the widow of composer Olivier Messiaen. Her sister was the ondes Martenot player Jeanne Loriod....
,
Cécile OussetCécile Ousset is a French pianist.Cécile was born in Tarbes, France, and gave her first recital at the age of five, subsequently studying at the Paris Conservatoire with Marcel Ciampi where, aged only fourteen, she was awarded first prize in the piano graduation class of 1950...
,
Thea MusgraveThea Musgrave is a Scottish composer of opera and classical music.-Biography:Born in Edinburgh in 1928, Thea Musgrave studied at the University of Edinburgh and in Paris as a pupil of Nadia Boulanger...
,
John CarmichaelJohn Carmichael is an Australian pianist, composer and music therapist who has long been resident in the United Kingdom. One of his best known works is the Concierto Folklorico for piano and string orchestra. His works for piano form much of his musical output, although he composes for many...
,
Mícéal O'RourkeMíċeál O'Rourke is an Irish pianist who is best known for his recordings of works by John Field .Born and raised in Dublin, O'Rourke obtained a degree in music from University College, Dublin. Shortly after graduation, he moved to Paris where he has lived ever since. On December 12, 1976 he gave...
,
Jean-Marc LuisadaJean-Marc Luisada is a pianist born in Bizerte, Tunisia.At the age of 16 he began studies at the Conservatoire de Paris under Dominique Merlet and Marcel Ciampi and Genevieve Joy-Dutilleux...
,
Pierre HétuPierre Hétu was a Canadian conductor and pianist.Hertu was born in Montreal, Quebec. He studied in Paris with Marcel Ciampi and Edouard Lindenberg , and in 1961, following studies with Sergiu Celibidache, he won the Concours International des Jeunes Chefs d'Orchestre in Besançon...
,
Kathryn StottKathryn Stott is a British classical pianist who performs as a concerto soloist, recitalist and chamber musician. Her specialities include the English and French classical repertoire, contemporary classical music and the tango...
, Melvyn Tan, Nancy Bricard,
Avi SchönfeldAvi Schönfeld is a Dutch-Israeli pianist and composer. He was born in Lodz, Poland on December 15, 1947.-Biography:Schönfeld gave his first concerts in his native Poland before at the age of 19 going to Israel to become a pupil of the Bartók disciple Ilona Vincze-Kraus...
, Beryl Sedivka, Andree Juliette Brun, Sally Sargent, Grant Foster, Mary Lou Muller, Anna-Marie Globenski, Eric Heidsieck, Jacqueline Cole, and many others. Another of his students was John-Paul Bracey, who was to become his biographer.
Ciampi recorded some early electrical solo and chamber music discs for French Columbia. His available recordings on CD include
César FranckCésar Franck , a Belgian composer, organist and music teacher who lived in France, was one of the great figures in Romantic music in the second half of the 19th century.- Biography :...
’s Piano Quintet with the
Capet QuartetThe Capet String Quartet was a French musical ensemble founded in 1893, which remained in existence until 1928 or later. It made a number of recordings and was considered one of the leading quartets of its time.- Personnel :...
. His family also had international careers. His assistants were Denyse Rivière and Blanche Bascourret de Guéraldi.
His compositions include Six Studies for the piano. He was a jury member on competitions such as the
Alexander BrailowskyAlexander Brailowsky was a Russian pianist who specialized in the works of Frédéric Chopin. He achieved most of his fame between the two world wars....
Competition in
LiègeLiège is a major city and municipality of Belgium located in the province of Liège, of which it is the administrative capital, in Wallonia, the French-speaking region of Belgium.The city is situated in the valley of the Meuse River, near Belgium's eastern borders...
and the
Eugène YsaÿeEugène Ysaÿe was a Belgian violinist, composer and conductor. His brother was pianist and composer Théo Ysaÿe . He was regarded as "The King of the Violin", or, as Nathan Milstein mentioned, "tzar"....
Competition in
BrusselsBrussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the de facto capital city of the European Union and the largest urban area in Belgium...
.
Ciampi was appointed an Officer of the
Légion d'honneurThe Légion d'honneur or Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur is a French order established by Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of the First Republic, on 19 May 1802...
and the Belgian Order of Léopold. He died in 1980.
Further reading
- John-Paul Bracey, A Biography of French Pianist Marcel Ciampi: Music To Last A Lifetime