The Fondation Etrillard sponsors the Research and Practice PhD at the Paris Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse and Sorbonne Université. The Foundation aims to further interpretation - with reinterpretation and discovery - to perpetuate the universality of European music. The scholarship is awarded to a performer-researcher who has passed the PhD entrance exam at the Paris Conservatoire. The subject of the research must be aligned with the Fondation Etrillard’s mission: to encourage the rediscovery of works and musical repertoires unknown to the general public.
This year's CNSMD/Sorbonne scholarship has been awarded to Marianne Salmona, a doctoral student in musicology and literature, who is also a pianist with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, with the Orchestre de l'Opéra National de Paris and the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg.
Her thesis looks at "the character piece for piano in Romantic Germany: narratological aspects and issues of interpretation". Her thesis studies the work of interpretation, which is in itself "a creative act, because it gives a certain vision of the work being interpreted. In this way, the interpreter tells something during the performance and can be considered a narrator", she explains. The repertoire studied includes small character pieces by Schumann, Liszt and Mendelssohn, as well as lesser-known composers such as Adolf Henselt.
Marianne Salmona
Macha Kanza is a French pianist and violinist whose training initially stemmed from the Polish piano school under Irène Kutin, then from the tradition of the Russian Heinrich Neuhaus piano school under Yevgni Moguilevsky at the Royal Conservatoire in Brussels.
She won numerous prizes in national and international competitions, and was noticed and encouraged by pianist France Clidat at the age of six.
That same year, she gave her first concerts at the Salle Gaveau, the Salle Pleyel and the Salle Cortot. Her prize at the Emil Gilels competition in Odessa in 2009 marked the start of her career. She went on to give several concerts in Europe and the United States.
Her artistic development has been greatly influenced by her encounters with Jean-Claude Pennetier, Daria Honora, Ivry Gitlis and Martha Argerich.
Her dual instrumental playing has also enabled her to embrace a wide repertoire of chamber music, to become an experienced chamber musician and to develop a great curiosity for today's repertoires.
Macha Kanza has made a number of high-profile appearances on France Musique, invited by Gaëlle Le Gallic, performing Rachmaninoff's 2nd Sonata live on piano, followed by Szymanowski's 2nd Myth on violin, to great enthusiasm from both audience and listeners.
For 5 years, she was top of her class at the Conservatoire Royal de Bruxelles. She obtained her Master's degree with Great Distinction in 2007, with a special mention for her performance of S. Rachmaninoff's 3rd Concerto.
In 2004, Macha was admitted to the double violin course at the Royal Conservatoire in Brussels, in Adam Korniszewski's class.
In January 2020, Macha Kanza performed the Variations on a Theme by Chopin, op.22, and the Liszt Sonata at the Salle Cortot. A month later, she released a new CD devoted to Schumann's "Songs of the Dawn", op.133, and the complete Etudes-Tableaux, op.39 by S. Rachmaninoff.
At the end of 2020, she took part in Clément Rochefort's programme "Générations France Musique - le live", and in Jean-Baptiste Urbain's "La Matinale" in a programme devoted entirely to George Enesco.
In September 2022, Macha Kanza was admitted to the CNSMDP to study for a Doctorate in Performance - Research and Practice. She will devote her research to the performance of Enesco's works and to the recording of a CD.
In 2021, the scholarship was awarded to Antoine Laporte, who is pursuing a career as a pianist alongside his doctorate.
He won 3rd prize in the 107th edition (2018) of the famous Prix d'Europe in Montreal, and was 2nd prizewinner at the Bradshaw & Buono International Piano Competition in New York (2015), quarter-finalist at the Jinji Lake International Piano Competition in Suzhou (China) and semi-finalist at the 67th Wideman International Piano Competition in Louisiana (USA).
Antoine Laporte's doctoral research is under the supervision of pianist Denis Pascal, and his thesis, directed by musicologist and Sorbonne University professor Philippe Cathé, will focus on Gabriel Pierné's relationship with the piano (1863-1937). Antoine Laporte is focusing on the works for piano and chamber music by the French composer, conductor, pianist and organist Gabriel Pierné (1863-1937).
Antoine Laporte - @Julien Thuret
Artistic director of the famous Association artistique des Concerts Colonne, Pierné was a prolific composer and an ardent defender of contemporary French music. He premiered Debussy's Ibéria, Ravel's Tzigane and the Second Suite from Daphnis et Chloé, and gave the first performances of Stravinsky's Firebird and Prokofiev's Classical Symphony (French premiere).
However, his meagre critical fortunes have outlived him, and Antoine Laporte intends to restore visibility to this key figure of the twentieth century and to this unjustly forgotten repertoire.
Etude de concert - Gabriel Pierné :
Antoine Laporte's research is based in particular on the archives of the Fonds Pierné, in private hands and at the Metz media library, consisting of correspondence, personal diaries and autograph scores of the composer's works. Eventually, the re-edition of the work, with comments on the sources and the interpretation, will be accompanied by a study of the musical interpretation itself. The work of analysing, re-reading and correcting the scores will help to nourish the instrumental playing of Pierné's works, a large part of which will shortly be the subject of a double-album by Antoine Laporte.
