X-Nico

10 unusual facts about Conservatoire de Paris


Alexander Smallens

He studied at the New York Institute of Musical Art until 1909, when he traveled to France to study at the Conservatoire de Paris.

Charles Bodinier

In 1887 Bodinier opened the Théatre d'Application in an old tannery at 18 rue Saint-Lazare for use by students at the Conservatoire de Paris.

Conn-Selmer

In the late 1800s, brothers Alexandre and Henri Selmer graduated from the Paris Conservatory as clarinetists.

David Laurie

Prior to that, in the mid-19th century the instrument was bought by a banker from Belgium in Florence and subsequently passed to J. B. Vuillume in Paris who gave it to his son-in-law M. Delphin Alard a professor of violin at the Paris Conservatory.

Elsie Fogerty

She trained at the Paris Conservatoire, then taught at the Crystal Palace School of Art and Literature (1889) and Sir Frank Benson's London School of Acting.

Fania Fénelon

She attended the Conservatoire de Paris, where she studied under Germaine Martinelli, obtaining a first prize in piano (despite her diminutive size and very small hands) and at the same time worked nights, singing in bars.

Jean Chantavoine

Jean Chantavoine (17 May 1877 – 16 July 1952) was a French musicologist and biographer and the secretary general for the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique.

Paul Cantelon

He studied with Andre Gauthier at the Geneva Conservatory of Music in Switzerland, Jacob Lateiner at the Juilliard School of Music in New York City, and Vlado Perlemuter at the Conservatoire de Paris.

Pavane pour une infante défunte

Pavane pour une infante défunte (Pavane for a Dead Princess) is a well-known piece written for solo piano by the French composer Maurice Ravel in 1899 when he was studying composition at the Conservatoire de Paris under Gabriel Fauré.

Wynne Godley

Born in London, he went to Rugby School then read politics, philosophy and economics at New College, Oxford where Isaiah Berlin was one of his tutors, and trained to become a professional musician, studying at the Paris Conservatoire for three years, and then becoming principal oboist at the BBC Welsh Orchestra.


Alexis Roland-Manuel

In 1947, he was appointed Professor of Aesthetics at the Conservatoire de Paris, where he remained until his retirement in 1961, making many contributions to musical theory and criticism, even assisting Igor Stravinsky by ghost-writing the theoretical work "The Poetics of Music".

André Bon

André Bon was born in Lille and studied music and composition at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris.

Arnulf Herrmann

In 1995–6 he was a pupil of Gérard Grisey and Emmanuel Nunes at the Conservatoire de Paris (CNSMDP), after which he completed his training with Hartmut Fladt and Jörg Mainka (theory) and with Friedrich Goldmann, Gösta Neuwirth, and Hanspeter Kyburz at the Universität der Künste Berlin.

Arthur Honegger

In 1926 he married Andrée Vaurabourg, a pianist and fellow student at the Paris Conservatoire, on the condition that they live in separate apartments.

Evelyn Hofer

Evelyn attempted unsuccessfully to enter the Paris Conservatory and then switched to photography, first apprenticing in Zürich and Basel and then taking private tuition in Zürich.

Félix Fourdrain

He then studied with Alexandre Guilmant and Charles-Marie Widor at the Conservatoire de Paris where he was awarded a premiere prix for organ performance in 1900.

Georges Fragerolle

Against the advice of his parents, he tried to devote himself to opera, but failed to obtain admission to the Conservatoire de Paris.

Henri Casadesus

Casadesus received his early musical instruction with Albert Lavignac and studied viola with Théophile Laforge at the Conservatoire de Paris, taking first prize in 1899.

Henri Cliquet-Pleyel

In 1913 he undertook musical studies at the Conservatoire de Paris under teachers André Gedalge and Eugène Cools, from whom he learned counterpoint and fugue, before taking up composition studies with Charles Koechlin, who had taught such diverse musicians as Faure, Poulenc, Milhaud, members of Les Six, and Cole Porter.

Jean-Delphin Alard

From 1827 he was a pupil of F. A. Habeneck at the Paris Conservatoire, where he succeeded Pierre Baillot as professor in 1843, retaining the post till 1875.

Joseph Morpain

Joseph Morpain (1873-1961) was a French pianist and teacher at the Conservatoire de Paris and École Normale de Musique de Paris, whose prominent students included Clara Haskil and Monique Haas.

Louis Arsene Delaunay

He studied at the Conservatoire, and made his first formal appearance on the stage in 1845, in Molière's Tartuffe at the Odon.

Maurice Vieux

Maurice Edgard Vieux (April 14, 1884 at Savy-Berlette near Valenciennes – April 28, 1951 in Paris) was a French violist whose teaching at the Conservatoire de Paris plays a key role in the history of the viola in France.

Monique Canto-Sperber

The institutions which have founded PSL, recently joined by Mines ParisTech as well as the Conservatoire de Paris, the Conservatoire National Supérieur d'Art Dramatique CNSAD, the École des Beaux-Arts, the École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs, La Fémis, the Lycée Henri-IV, the Pierre-Gilles de Gennes Foundation, the Louis-Bachelier Institute and the Rothschild Foundation (IBPC), enjoy a prestigious reputation.

Nikolay Kedrov, Jr.

His mother was Sofia Gladkaya (1875—1965) was a singer in the Mariinsky Theatre and a teacher of Conservatoire de Paris.

Ophélie Gaillard

While studying at the Paris Conservatory, she obtained three first prizes in music: one in chamber music in the class of Maurice Bourgue, one in cello in the class of Philippe Muller, and one in baroque cello in the class of Christophe Coin.

Pierre Sancan

Born in Mazamet in the South of France, Sancan began in musical studies in Morocco and Toulouse before entering the Conservatoire de Paris where he studied with Jean Gallon, and where he took conducting with Charles Munch and Roger Désormière, piano with Yves Nat, and composition with Henri Busser.

Pnina Salzman

She graduated at the Ecole Normale de Musique then became a pupil of Magda Tagliaferro at the Conservatoire de Paris, where she was to win the Premier Prix de Piano in 1938, aged 16.

Renaud Garcia-Fons

He got formal musical training at the Conservatoire de Paris, where he studied with François Rabbath who taught him his special technique of playing arco.

Rue Adolphe Mille, Paris

Rue Adolphe Mille is a street in Paris' XIXe arrondissement, near the parc de la Villette, the Conservatoire de Musique et de Danse and the Cité de la Musique.

Timothee Adamowski

He later studied at the Warsaw Conservatory under Apolinary Kątski and at the Paris Conservatory under Lambert Massart.

Yves Henry

A graduate from the Conservatoire de Paris (where he teaches nowadays), he was the first Western European pianist to win the Robert Schumann Competition (1981) and was subsequently prized at the Casadesus Competition (1985).