CECILIA DUNOYER

CECILIA DUNOYER,
Pianist, Author, Teacher

Cecilia Dunoyer¹s 1997 New York debut in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, performed to a sold-out audience, garnered rave reviews. Harris Goldsmith praised her "accomplished pianism... her elegantly assured prestidigitation... her firm, richly bronzen tone and an unmistakable ear for orchestral textures and colors. If Fauré was well served by Ms. Dunoyer, her Debussy proved even more impressive." An invitation to perform in New York again at Merkin Hall followed in May 1998 in a program of 20^th century French and Japanese music, which The New York Times most favorably reviewed.

Cecilia Dunoyer has concertized extensively in the United States and her native Europe, including recitals in Paris, New York, Washington, Vienna and Weimar, as well as a tour of the Baltic Sea to Russia, Finland and the Scandinavian countries. Since 1999, she has appeared regularly at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC. A series of eight concerts and lectures entitled A Century of French Music were so enthusiastically received that return engagements are booked yearly, including lecture-recitals on Claude Debussy in 2003, and a 1920¹s Paris series in 2004. Ravel will be next.

She has performed as a soloist with orchestras in Maine, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Washington, and France concertos ranging from Mozart to Ravel and Gershwin.

She forms a sonata duo with violinist Julie Savignon. On their Paris debut in November 2004, critics noted the duo¹s perfect complicity and its remarkable alchemy between rigor and freedom. Re-engagements are planned for next season in France and the U.S.A. The Duo was featured this fall on WPSU¹s Allegheny Sounds.

Cecilia Dunoyer is the author of Marguerite Long, A Life in French Music published by Indiana University Press in 1993, and simultaneously translated in French and released by Editions Findakly in Paris the same year. The book has received critical acclaim and an interview with Dunoyer was featured on Performance Today on National Public Radio. Ms. Dunoyer was also the guest for a series of ten radio shows for Radio-Canada (of the CBC in Montreal) entitled "Pour le Clavier" (For the Piano), and she is featured in The World of Women in Classical Music

February 2000 marked the publication of Debussy in Performance (Yale University Press) in which Dunoyer was invited to write about early performances of Debussy¹s piano music. The book has been acclaimed in the London Literary Times and includes contributions from such eminent music personalities as Pierre Boulez and Inghelbrecht.

Cecilia Dunoyer grew up in Libya, Italy, Austria, Switzerland and France. Following her studies in Paris, she worked with the great Hungarian pianist, Gyorgy Sandor, earning both Bachelor's and Master's degrees in piano with High Distinction from the University of Michigan. She received a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Maryland in 1990. An Associate Fellow of Silliman College, Yale University, since 1984, Ms. Dunoyer has served on the piano faculty at Penn State University. State College is now ³home,² with her husband Taylor Greer and their three children, François, Emile and Juliette.

CECILIA DUNOYER Press Excerpts

"Ms. Dunoyer, for all her elegantly assured prestidigitation, is decidedly of the tradition of Alfred Cortot and Yves Nat. Her accomplished pianism insures a rich tonal quality. Her Debussy proved most impressive. Reflets dans l¹eau had a cool, shimmering mobility; the pianist¹s essentially disciplined sense for Classic shape as filtered through the distorting ripples in the water. Hommage à Rameau was intoned with a grave purity... Conversely, Mouvement created an intoxicating swirl of gears-in-action."
New York Concert Review

"Pianist Dunoyer demonstrated an aggressive affinity for the musical idiom of twentieth-century France. In Messiaen she shifted skillfully between explosive virulence and rarified delicacy.
New Haven Register

"...an eloquent young pianist... evocative... graceful"
The New York Times

"Ms. Dunoyer¹s account of this demanding suite [Pictures at an Exhibition] was exciting and goal-oriented. The audacious pomp of the opening Promenade and the trigger-hair timing of Gnomus riveted the attention... The wistfulness of the Tuileries, the stolid massiveness of Bydlo, the pomp and irony of Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuyle, and the bustle of the Limoges market place were, each and every one, handsomely projected with a firm, richly bronzen tone and an unmistakable ear for orchestral textures and colors."
New York Concert Review

"... showed finesse, dignity and excellent execution. Dunoyer's technical ability is her strong point... providing excellent communication and liaison with the ensemble... Concerto made magical by Dunoyer... stunning performance of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 24 in C Minor."
Lincoln Star

"Dunoyer allowed Ravel's pearly waterworks to swell deliciously without ever drenching the audience in willful gushes of sound."
New Haven Register

"In Chopin's Ballade No. 4, Dunoyer's playing rose in intensity, starting from a lyrical contemplative opening and reaching an exciting and powerul climax."
Thuringische Landeszeitung, Weimar

"... a proficient artist, with a technical command of the piano and an established musical sense."
Lincoln Journal

"... a very fine musician... has a degree of control over the tone quality and dynamic range of the instrument seldom matched by other pianists... Her playing stands out for its unusual sensitivity and control."
Yale University, Silliman Concerts

"...a bravura performance... in the Ravel Concerto in G Major, Dunoyer easily surmounted the pianistic problemsŠplaying an exquisitely shaped and musical performance. The second movement, "adagio assai", which gives much scope to the piano, was played to an audience that hardly dared to breathe for fear of missing a note..."
Daily Times