Eclectic | Being Me by Marie François

Various composers

Marie François

Eclectic | Being Me

Price: € 19.95
Format: CD
Label: Challenge Classics
UPC: 0608917280425
Catnr: CC 72804
Release date: 05 April 2019
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1 CD ✓ in stock	€ 19.95	Buy

Label
Challenge Classics

UPC
0608917280425

Catalogue number
CC 72804

Release date
05 April 2019

"This is just great music and you only have to listen."

Pianist, 10-5-2019

Album

Artist(s)

Composer(s)

Press

About the album

Marie Francois studied at the Conservatory of Maastricht with Joop Celis and her did her master’s degree at Leuven with Alan Weiss, and she graduated summa cum laude from both. To take her technique to the next level, she went on to study with the Russian Polina Leschenko and Eliso Virsaladze. She also continued to develop by taking numerous of masterclasses and by playing concerts in venues in Benelux, USA, UK, Germany and Italy as well as in the intimacy of living rooms. Her debut album on Challenge Classics is one of deep expression and commitment to the music, not only through technical skills, but also through emotion and intuition. It presents an eclectic program with works by Frédéric Chopin, Alberto Ginastera, Muzio Clementi, Sergei Prokofiev and Nikolai Kapustin which fit her personality perfectly, and with which she can tell her personal story. This is the beginning of a wonderful story that will lead her deeper into the music and present her to a larger audience!

Het debuutalbum Eclectic | Being Me van de Belgische pianiste Marie François is bijzonder. Zo jong als ze is beschikt ze over fantastische technische vaardigheden en staat ze bekend om haar emotie en invoelingsvermogen. Ze is een jonge musicus met een heldere visie op klassieke muziek en haar rol daarin, een pianiste die absoluut ook een jong publiek zal aanspreken. Marie François brengt een eclectisch programma met werken van Muzio Clementi, Frédéric Chopin, Sergei Prokofjev, Alberto Ginastera en Nikolai Kapustin. Muziek die perfect bij haar persoonlijkheid past, en waarmee ze haar persoonlijke verhaal vertelt.

Een mooie toekomst tegemoet

Marie François (1993) zit vol leven en dat leven is een en al muziek, ritmes, tempo en melodie. En dat realiseerde ze zich al toen ze op vijfjarige leeftijd pianoles kreeg van haar grootvader, die haar geduldig de belangrijkste beginselen bijbracht. Ze ontwikkelde al snel een gedrevenheid en een diep respect voor de piano. Gecombineerd met haar intuïtie, enthousiasme en passie, zal ze zeker het hart van menig muziekliefhebber beroeren, dieper in de muziek geraken en haar bekendheid bij het grote publiek vergroten! Dit is het begin van een prachtige toekomst.

Studeren en optreden

Marie François studeerde aan het Conservatorium van Maastricht bij Joop Cellis en behaalde haar masterstudie in Leuven bij Alan Weiss. Ze rondde beide summa cum laude af. Om haar techniek naar een hoger niveau te tillen studeerde ze door bij de Russische Polina Leschenko en de Georgische Eliso Virsaladze. Marie François blijft zich ontwikkelen door talrijke masterclasses te volgen en concerten te geven. Zo trad ze onder meer op in culturele centra in België, de Kleine Zaal van het Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, op het International Pianofestival in Miami en het Aurora Festival in Zweden, in Duitsland, Luxemburg, Italië, het Verenigd Koninkrijk, maar ook in de intimiteit van de huiskamer. In 2018 speelde ze meermaals het pianoconcerto van Edvard Grieg in Oekraïne, samen met het staatsorkest van Lviv, onder leiding van Herman Engels. Tijdens de Koningin Elisabethwedstrijd van 2016, editie piano, maakte ze deel uit van de jongerenjury voor Canvas en Klara. Daarnaast schrijft Marie François geregeld opiniestukken in verschillende kranten.

Marie Francois studierte am Konservatorium Maastricht bei Joop Celis, machte ihren Master in Löwen bei Alan Weiss und schloss beide Studiengänge summa cum laude ab. Um ihre Technik weiter zu entwickeln, studierte sie bei Eliso Virsaladze und der Russin Polina Leschenko. Zudem nahm sie an zahlreichen Meisterkursen teil und spielte Konzerte in den Benelux-Ländern, den USA, Großbritannien, Deutschland und Italien, doch auch in der intimen Atmosphäre eines Wohnzimmers. Ihr Debütalbum auf Challenge Classics ist geprägt von tiefem Ausdruck und großer Hingabe zur Musik, nicht nur technisch, sondern auch durch Gefühl und Intuition. Das eklektische Programm setzt sich zusammen aus Werken von Frédéric Chopin, Alberto Ginastera, Muzio Clementi, Sergej Prokofjew und Nikokaj Kapustin, die perfekt zu ihrer Persönlichkeit passen, und mit denen sie ihre persönliche Geschichte erzählen kann. Dies ist der Anfang einer wunderbaren Geschichte, die sie tiefer in die Musik leiten und sie einem größeren Publikum vorstellen wird!

Artist(s)

Marie François (piano)

Marie François is a Belgian concert pianist. Her repertoire characterizes her as a musician and human being: Bold, Brave and Lovable. She wants to transport the audience with piano music she loves and between pieces she talks about her interpretations and life as an artist. Marie is enthusiastic about life and - to the point of impatience - wants to get everyone excited about classical music. Therefore, all her projects can be described as storytelling: she wants to tell the story of the music and take the audience on that journey in the most personal way. She therefore combines her performances with lively and informative commentaries, in which she shares anecdotes about the music, the composers and the genre, making a unique connection with her audience.
Performed in Belgium in various venues and cultural centers, François has also given concerts in the Netherlands, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Italy, Denmark, Lithuania, Poland, Greece, Ukraine, Romania, the United Kingdom and the United States. Highlights include performances at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Queen Elisabeth Hall in Antwerp, the Concertgebouw in Bruges, and at the Athenaeum in Bucharest, the Martha Argerich Festival in Hamburg, the International Piano Festival in Miami, the Chamber Music Festival in Schiermonnikoog and the Aurora Festival in Sweden. She played as a soloist with Prima La Musica conducted by Dirk Brossé at Muziekcentrum De Bijloke. She played at Flagey's Piano Days and performed at the Martha Argerich Festival 2024 in Hamburg with violinist Geza Hosszu Legocky.
Her debut cd, Eclectic/Being me, was released in 2019 with the Dutch label, Challenge Records International. Two weeks later the cd got chosen among the 10 best classical music albums released that month on Apple Music worldwide. Together with artists such as Boris Giltburg and Renaud Capuçon. She released a new EP in 2021, Memories of Tomorrow. During the 2016 piano edition of the Queen Elisabeth Competition, she was a member of De Zes/Les Six, the young pianist's jury for Canvas and Klara. She often writes opinion pieces for multiple publications, is invited to join television panels and had her own tv program on Eclips TV. During the COVID health crisis, she organized The Corona Cure, a concert tour and online talk show where she discussed the future of classical music with a multitude of guests from the music scene. She also started her own podcast: Musings with Marie and is regularly asked to talk about classical music on the television and the radio. François started to play the piano at the age of four. She finished her Bachelor degree with Joop Celis at the Conservatory of Maastricht, her master’s degree in Belgium with Alan Weiss and her postgraduate with Polina Leschenko. She perfected her playing at the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole in Italy with Elisso Virsaladze. François took part in masterclasses from Elisabeth Leonskaja, Jan Wijn, Pavel Gililov, Alexander Melnikov, Yoheved Kaplinsky, Anton Nell, Alexander Moutouzkine, Peter Donohoe… She took part in the Accademia Chigiana in Siena for four years where she had lessons with Lilya Zilberstein.

Who doesn't love Chopin's Nocturnes? is a brand-new concert program inspired by François' years of admiration for the Polish composer's repertoire. In 2023 she spent one month in Warsaw, studying all the nocturnes of Chopin. She reported her process in a daily podcast series for which she received the Belgian Podcast Award for Best Independent Story. The complete Nocturnes were recorded at the end of 2024. The release is expected in May 2025.

François performs with artists such as violinist Geza Hosszu Legocky, pianist Tony Yike Yang & Soprano Kelly Poukens, with whom she recently won the Vrienden van het Lied prize in The Netherlands.

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Composer(s)

Frédéric Chopin

Frédéric Chopin is one of the greatest composers of the Romantic piano tradition. He was a master in making the small form great. His ballades, mazurkas, polonaises, preludes, etudes and nocturnes all belong to the most popular standard works for piano ever written. As a child prodigy, Chopin grew up in a middle class family, who lived among the literati of Warsaw. When in 1830 the November Uprising broke out in Poland, the twenty year old Chopin stayed in Vienna. He became an exile and never returned to his mother country. He eventually settled in Paris. He avoided public concerts, but he did like performing in small settings, such as salons and at home for his friends. This way, Chopin built a reputation as an exceptional pianist, teacher and composer.
Chopin brought a unique synthesis between the Viennese bravado and the French/English lyric style. Even though his pieces often are technically very demanding, the focus was always on creating a lyric expression and poetic atmosphere. He invented the instrumental ballade, and brought salongenres to a higher level with his many innovations and refinements.

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Alberto Ginastera

Alberto Evaristo Ginastera (Spanish pronunciation April 11, 1916 – June 25, 1983) was an Argentine composer of classical music. He is considered one of the most important 20th-century classical composers of the Americas. Ginastera was born in Buenos Aires to a Catalan father and an Italian mother. During the last few years of his life, he preferred to pronounce his surname in its Catalan pronunciation, with a soft 'G' as in 'George' rather than a Spanish 'J' sound. In fact this would be the local Argentine pronunciation of his name if it were spelled Yinastera or Llinastera.
Ginastera studied at the conservatory in Buenos Aires, graduating in 1938. As a young professor, he taught at the Liceo Militar General San Martín. After a visit to the United States in 1945–47, where he studied with Aaron Copland at Tanglewood, he returned to Buenos Aires and co-founded the League of Composers. He held a number of teaching posts. Among his notable students were Ástor Piazzolla (who studied with him in 1941), Alcides Lanza, Waldo de los Ríos, Jacqueline Nova and Rafael Aponte-Ledée. See: List of music students by teacher: G to J#Alberto Ginastera.
Ginastera moved back to the United States in 1968 and then in 1970 to Europe. He died in Geneva, Switzerland, at the age of 67 and was buried in the Cimetière des Rois there.

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Muzio Clementi

Muzio Clementi was an Italian composer from the Classicistic period. He was one of the first piano virtuosos who had a major impact on the improvement of the piano as an instrument and among his students were some notable pianists such as John Field, Ignaz Moscheles, Frederic Kalkbrenner, Giacomo Meyerbeer and Johann Nepomuk Hummel. His compositions inspired Mozart and Beethoven among many others. Clementi was born in Rome but stayed in London from 1766 on. From here, he undertook several large concert tours to all the musical centres of Europe. He is mostly known for his Sonatines and his didactic work Gradus ad Parnassum.

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Sergei Prokofiev

Sergei Prokofiev was born in the countryside of Ukraine. He studied from 1903 at the conservatory of St Petersburg, under Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Anatoli Liadov among others. He was educated as a composer, pianist and conductor. Initially, he made a name for himself as a pianist. In 1918, he left the Soviet Union for the USA, but wasn't able to succeed, and he decided to move to Paris in 1920. His concert tours brought him back to the Soviet Union in 1927, who lured him back for good in 1936. Prokofiev died in march 1953, on the same day as Joseph Stalin.
Prokofiev is considered as one of the greatest Russian composers of the twentieth century, even though he wasn't a great innovator. He generally applied the strict classical forms and structures to his works and focused on a classical tonality, with a few exceptions of expressive dissonants and incidental bitonality. Yet, he is only explicitly neoclassicistic in his popular 'Classical Symphony', his first symphony composed in 1917. Many of his works show his humour, while his later works presented his darker, more serious side. One of his best known works is the musical fairytale Peter and the Wolf, which is popular among children all over the world.

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Nikolai Kapustin

Press

This is just great music and you only have to listen.
Pianist, 10-5-2019

François can certainly play. Fingers brisk, but also sweetly articulating with Kapustin or Ginastera’s Argentinian dances.
De Standaard, 08-5-2019

Moving people, that's my mission.
HLN.be, 17-4-2019