Fériel Kaddour

Fériel Kaddour studied at the École Normale Supérieure (rue d'Ulm), the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris and the École Normale de Musique. Today she divides her time between concerts (France, Germany, United Kingdom, Italy), teaching and research. She also publishes articles and essays on Lieder and the history of performance in literary journals (Nouvelle Revue Française, Po&sie) and with La Dogana (Geneva).

On the piano, Fériel Kaddour was taught by Victoria Melki, and improved her skills with Anne Queffélec, Christian Ivaldi and Pascal Devoyon. She owes her training as a musicologist to Isabelle Duha (writing and keyboard harmony) and Rémy Stricker (aesthetics). She also learned vocal accompaniment from François Le Roux, Jeff Cohen and Noël Lee. She performs regularly in Paris: Théâtre du Ranelagh, Salle Cortot, Maison de la Radio, Salle Adyar, Musée de l'Orangerie. She has been invited to numerous festivals: Piano en Saintonge (Great performers, new generation) at the Abbaye de Saintes, Festival des Grands Crus de Bourgogne, Musique à Albas, Musiciennes à Ouessant, Saison Nova Polska, Musique à l'Abbaye, Musiciennes en Guadeloupe, Festival Cantus Formus, Piano City di Napoli. She also gives recitals in Italy (Verona, Ragusa-Ibla, San Marino, Naples), Germany (Mainz), England (Cambridge, London).

She is fond of chamber music, and regularly gives concerts with the pianist Juliette Regnaud, with whom she has formed a duo since their first prize ex aequo at the Noyers-sur-Serein competition. Her literary training and her taste for the vocal repertoire have allowed her to establish privileged relationships with prestigious singers of her generation, notably with the mezzo-soprano Caroline Meng. She has also had the opportunity to perform with the sopranos Gaëlle Arquez and Johanne Cassar, the mezzos Amaya Dominguez and Isabelle Druet, and the Swedish counter-alto Mae Heydorn. In 2009, she gave a complete performance of Henri Dutilleux's songs at the Ecole Normale Supérieure with the American baritone Marc Callahan.

Her dual training also directs her towards the practice of commented concerts. She has actively participated in the original projects of the Cantabile Concerts and has given a series of commented concerts at the Théâtre du Ranelagh, then at the Salle Adyar, with her accomplices, the pianists Geoffroy Couteau and Emmanuelle Swiercz.

She now teaches musicology at the ENS Ulm. Concerned with widening the public's access to classical music, she organizes educational concerts there. In this respect, she is particularly involved in cultural projects organized by the Pôle pour l'Égalité Scolaire et Universitaire, which aims to promote social diversity in higher education. In this respect, it has organized a tutoring program for high school students in Sarcelles.

She defended her doctoral thesis in December 2009 (with honors) on "Le Geste du pianiste". She is currently writing an essay on the same subject, to be published in 2015. Her research work has led to publications in various journals: "Playing the piano", in Methodos (November 2011), "Le Geste du pianiste", in Murmure, (May 2006), "Le geste interprète : à propos du buste d'un pianiste", in Participating in the world, reflections on gesture (ed. Textuel), "Playing Schubert : the art of slow time. Quelques remarques sur un point d'orgue dans la Sonate D960 ", in Les Cahiers de la Société québécoise de recherche en musique, September 2009.

She can regularly be heard playing on France Musique: "Atelier des chanteurs", "Matin des musiciens", "Note contre note", "Lettres intimes". She was also featured on TF1, during a report on the 8 o'clock news devoted to the "Musiciennes à Ouessant" festival. Her performances have been praised by music critics in Resmusica, La Dépêche du Midi, Le Monde de la Musique.

This recording, devoted to the music of the Russian composer Anatoly Alexandrov, is his first recording.