Biography

“Under Emilie's fingers, the notes dance, cascade, and bewitch the audience. A moment of pure magic...” La Provence

 Audio clips of recordings:

Chopin, Ballade no. 4 in F minor, op. 52

Emilie Crapoulet was born in Aix-en-Provence, France, and has dual nationality French/British. She studied the piano at the Conservatoire there and in Marseille where she was awarded several prizes. During that time, she also spent a year at the Conservatorium in Sydney, Australia, studying with William Corbett-Jones, visiting professor from the University of San Francisco. In 2000, she gained a place at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in Advanced Instrumental Studies, studying with Professor Paul Roberts. She was awarded a Master of Music degree in 2001 and a Postgraduate Diploma in Music Performance in 2002. At the Guildhall, she took part in Masterclasses by Dominique Merlet, Edward Auer, Leslie Howard and Alexander Volkov and recently, in the University of Surrey, with Liszt specialist, Kenneth Hamilton.

Emilie has given many concerts worldwide, including solo and chamber music recitals in international music festivals and renowned concert halls in France, Britain, Germany, Holland, the USA, and Latin America. Performances in France include the Aix-en-Provence International Music Festival, the Lyons Club ‘Rising Stars’ and Gala Concerts, at the Sorbonne and the Maison Debussy in Paris, in Nice, Marseille, Beaulieu-sur-Mer, etc. and in many historic châteaux, Château de Lourmarin, Château de Taulignan, Château de Castelfranc, Pavillon de Beauregard, etc. Emilie has performed extensively in England (Portsmouth Theatre Royal, Bath International Music Festival, Guildford International Music Festival, Guildford International Book Festival, Wigmore Hall, St Martin-in-the-Fields, Southwark Cathedral, St Bride's Fleet Street, The Electric Theatre Guildford, Elmbridge village, etc.) both as a soloist and as a member of chamber or orchestral ensembles.

Emilie has also performed for the Liszt Society in London and has given a programme of Impressionist music for the Cobbe Collection in Hatchlands (Surrey). She was invited in 2005 to give a solo recital in Portland Oregon, USA, where she also gave a lecture-recital for the 15^th International Virginia Woolf Conference in the Lewis and Clark College. Emilie performed Mozart’s piano concerto in D minor in the Guildford International Music Festival 2005 where she also gave a solo recital and she was subsequently asked to return to the Festival in 2007 to perform a programme of French music at the Electric Theatre. In May 2007, Emilie gave a lecture-recital on French Impressionist music in the Aberystwyth Arts Centre, in Wales, followed, in December 2007, by a concert in Mainz, Germany, featuring Debussy Préludes, Ravel’s Gaspard de la Nuit and works by Albeniz. In March 2008, as part of the Musical Iconography Study Day, she was invited by the Royal Musical Association to give a lecture at London’s National Gallery on the relations between music and Impressionist painting.

In July 2008, Emilie went on a 4-week concert tour of Nicaragua, Central America, where she gave 6 highly-acclaimed piano recitals in the major cities of the country, also appearing live on national television and radio. This exceptional tour was organized by the Nicaraguan Cultural Forum and sponsored by Telefonica. At her final concert in the Palacio Nacional, Managua, she received the ‘ExpresArte’ award for her contribution to Nicaraguan culture and art.

Recent appearances include a performance of Spanish music, commemorating the 100^th anniversary of the death of Isaac Albeniz, in the 2009 Guildford International Music Festival, a recital in Montpellier (France) for the International Conference on Autonomy and Commitment in Modernist Arts, a lecture-recital on Debussy for the Sixth International Conference on Music since 1900 at Keele University, as well as a guest appearance for the Beethoven Society in London, and a lecture-recital featuring contemporary music by Tom Armstrong at King’s College, London. In May 2009, Emilie was invited to perform works by Beethoven, Chopin, Haydn and Debussy on a ‘Musical Cruise’ up the Rhine river on board the M/S Amadeus Classic. She returned again to the M/S Amadeus Classic this last October to perform works by Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin and Schumann on a ‘Musical Cruise’ down the Danube. She has just returned from a transatlantic crossing on the M/S Princess Danae in January 2010 where she was invited to give two evening piano recitals. Future engagements include recitals in the UK, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, India, France and Portugal, as well as further performances on musical cruises celebrating the bicentenary of Chopin’s birth.  

She will be bringing out a CD of music by Beethoven and Chopin in May of this year.

Publications

Publication List

Monographs:

Virginia Woolf – a Musical Life, Bloomsbury Heritage Series, London:Cecil Woolf Publishing, June 2009.

Articles and book chapters:

‘Voicing the Music in Literature: “Musicality” as a Travelling Concept’, European Journal of English Studies, 13.1: Travelling Concepts, eds Birgit Neumann & Frederik Tygstrup, May 2009, pp. 79-91.

 ‘Musical Aesthetics in Virginia Woolf’s The String Quartet’, Journal of the Short Story in English, vol. 50, ed. Christine Reynier, Anger: Presses Universitaires d’Anger, Spring 2008, pp. 201-215.

‘From the traditional classical piano recital to the interactive multimedia event: the aesthetic consequences of a move towards intermediality in contemporary performance practice’, Culture, Language and Representation, Vol. 5, special edition on ‘Intermediality in Contemporary Culture’, Guest Editor: Freda Chapple, May 2008, pp. 123-138.

‘Consciousness and the Imagination in the Music of the French Impressionists’, CLA (‘Consciousness, Literature and the Arts’), peer-reviewed journal, ed. Daniel Meyer-Dinkgräfe, December 2007. [online]

 ‘Virginia Woolf and the Music of the Mind’, Consciousness, Theatre, Literature and the Arts 2007, ed. Daniel Meyer-Dinkgräfe, Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2007, pp. 289-308.

Creative Writing:

‘Studio Silence’, Winner of the ‘Discovering through Enquiry’ short story competition 2007, SCEPTrE, University of Surrey.

Conference Poster:

‘From intermediality to interdisciplinarity, a new critical  methodology for the study of music and literature: Virginia Woolf’s The Waves’, awarded the Conference’s “Best Poster” Prize (Research Staff), Festival of Research, University of Surrey, November 2007.

Programme notes:

Programme notes for concerts and recitals on works by composers including J.S. Bach, Scarlatti, Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin,  Liszt, Rachmaninov, Prokoviev, Debussy, Ravel, Albeniz, Ohana and Messiaen.

Media and Multimedia:

Television Interview, Canal 12, Nicaragua, July 2008.

Television Interview, Cien por ciento Noticias, Nicaragua, July 2008.

Live concert broadcast, Radio Dario, Nicaragua, June 2008.

“Music as a stimulus for enquiry : a concert pianist's perspective”, interactive multimedia webpage, SCEPTrE (Surrey Centre for Excellence in Professional Training and Education), June 2007, online: http://complexworld.pbwiki.com/Emilie

Radio Interview,BBC 4 Southern Counties, December 2004.

Radio Interview, Radio Zinzine, France, July 2002.

Papers, Presentations and Lecture-recitals given at

Conferences and Research Seminars

‘Collaboration and Tradition’, joint presentation by Emilie Crapoulet (pianist) and Tom Armstrong (composer). Collaborative Processes in Music Making: Pedagogy and Practice, PALATINE, University of Surrey, November 2009.

 ‘Music/Literature Interdisciplinarity at Doctoral Level in Higher Education’, invited keynote speaker, Literature and Music Research – Workshop for Graduate Students and Supervisors, School of Advanced Study, Senate House, London, July 2009.

‘Debussy’s unspoken narratives: story-telling in thePreludes’, lecture-recital, Sixth Biennial International Conference on Music since 1900, Keele University, July 2009.

‘Ravel’s Gaspard de la Nuit:: narratives in performance’, paper, Word and Music Studies: Seventh International Conference, Vienna, June 2009.

‘From Monet to Debussy: Music and Painting’, lecture given on board the M/S Amadeus Classic for Notre Temps, ‘Rhine Musical Cruise’, 6^th of May 2009.

‘Debussy, Ravel and Albeniz’, lecture-recital (invited lecture-recitalist),Conference on Autonomy & Commitment in Modernist British Arts, Université Paul Valéry-Montpellier III, March 2009.

‘Leaving things in a mess: Virginia Woolf, autonomy and the musical paradigm’, paper, Conference on Autonomy & Commitment in Modernist British Arts, Université Paul Valéry-Montpellier III, March 2009.

‘Capriccio’: avant-premiere of his new piece for piano, written for Emilie Crapoulet’, lecture-recital given jointly with Tom Armstrong, Department of Music, King’s College, London, March 2009.

 ‘Suggesting versus showing: Virginia Woolf’s cinema of the future’, paper, Conference on Modernism and the Visual Arts, Oxford University, UK, 1^st-2^nd of November 2008.

‘Seeing the music: colour, sound and texture in the art of the début-du-siècle’, illustrated lecture given at the National Gallery, London for the Royal Musical Association ‘Musical Iconography’ Study Day, Courteauld Institute/National Gallery, London, March 2008.

‘Musical performances as immersive experiences in Higher Education’, interactive recital/workshop (invited conference facilitator), Appreciating the Power of Immersive Experience Conference, Surrey Centre for Excellence in Professional Training and Education (SCEPTrE), University of Surrey, UK, January 2008.

‘Through the looking-glass: transmediality in musicalized narratives of the Modernist period’, paper (invited speaker),Transmediality and Interdisciplinary Research Colloquium, Johannes-Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany, December 2007.

 ‘Transmediality and transculturality in Performance: from Aloysius Bertrand’s La Nuit et ses Sortileges to Ravel’s Gaspard de la Nuit’, lecture-recital (guest lecture-recitalist), Transmediality and Interdisciplinary Research Colloquium, Johannes-Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany, December 2007.

‘From intermediality to interdisciplinarity, a new critical  methodology for the study of music and literature: Virginia Woolf’s The Waves’, poster presentation, awarded the Conference’s “Best Poster” Prize (Research Staff), Festival of Research, University of Surrey, UK November 2007.

‘Facilitating Enquiry: a concert pianist's perspective: From interpretation to performance, music as a model of enquiry’, interactive musical recital/enquiring conversation (invited speaker), Learning for a Complex World, ‘Facilitating Enquiry’ Annual Conference 2007, SCEPTrE Centre, University of Surrey, UK, June 2007

‘The music of the mind: music and Modernist stream of consciousness literature’, paper (invited speaker), Second International Conference on Consciousness, Theatre, Literature and the Arts, University of Wales, Aberystwyth, May 2007.

‘Consciousness and the Imagination in the Music of the French Impressionists (Debussy, Ravel and Albeniz)’, lecture-recital (guest lecture-recitalist), Second International Conference on Consciousness, Theatre, Literature and the Arts, University of Wales, Aberystwyth, May 2007.

‘Virginia Woolf’s aesthetics: beyond the boundaries of language’, paper, 16^th International Virginia Woolf Conference, “Woolfian Boundaries”, University of Birmingham, UK, June 2006.

‘Virginia Woolf’s “The String Quartet”’, presentation, School of Arts Research Seminar, University of Surrey, UK, December 2005.

‘Virginia Woolf and the Impressionists’, lecture/recital, Guildford International Book Festival 2005 in collaboration with the University of Surrey Book Circle, University of Surrey, UK, October 2005.

‘Virginia Woolf: Exploring the Sound of Music’, paper, followed by an evening solo piano recital of French Impressionist music, 15^th International Virginia Woolf Conference 2005, “The Art of Exploration” , Lewis and Clark College, Portland, Oregon (USA), June 2005.

‘Student Volunteering in Britain’, live international video-conference with Indiana University (USA), Student Volunteering Conference 2005, University College, London, UK, April 2005.

‘The Musicalization of Fiction: Counterpoint in Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway’, paper, Royal Musical Association Annual Research Students’ Conference, Universities of Durham and Newcastle, March 2005.

‘Virginia Woolf and Music’, lecture/recital, Guildford International Music Festival 2005, Guildford Institute, Guildford, UK.

‘Musical forms and aesthetics in the works of Virginia Woolf’, presentation, School of Arts Research Seminar, University of Surrey, UK, December 2004. 

‘Figures of power in the music of Purcell and Handel’, lecture-recital, History Research Seminar, Université de Provence, France, also given for the Literature and Culture Lecture Series at the English bookstore ‘Book in Bar’, Aix-en-Provence, France, January 2003.

‘French Impressionism in literature and art’, lectures and presentations given for the "Ravel Project" Research Group directed by Professor Paul Roberts, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London, and also given for the Barbican French Group, St Margaret's Art Group, etc., 2000-2003.