Cécile Chaminade (1857 – 1944)
Cécile Chaminade was born Cécile Louise Stéphanie Chaminade in Paris. Instruction by her mother introduced her to the piano. By the age of 10 she was invited to enter the Paris Conservatoire, but her father forbid it. She instead studied privately with several teachers.
Cécile Chaminade publicly performed on the piano at age 18 and played frequently in Paris and London. In her 50s she toured the United States.
Cécile Chaminade had also been composing since she was about 8 years old, and she played a few of her pieces for Georges Bizet. Her Opus 1 (Deux Mazurkas for piano) was published when she was 12, and she continued to compose over the next 60 years, reaching Opus 171 in 1928. Her compositions encompass songs, piano pieces, orchestral works, and a comic opera. In 1913 she because the first female composer to be made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor.
Chaminade’s one-movement Concertina for Flute and Orchestra in D Major (Opus 107) dates from 1902. This video with flutist Hayley Miller and the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra begins with the conductor’s amusing (though perhaps apocryphal) account of the origin of this composition. The music begins at 2:15.