Biography
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Born
23 January 1936 (age 88)
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Born In
Tarbes, Hautes-Pyrénées, Occitanie, France
Cécile Ousset (born January 23, 1936) is a French pianist.
Cécile was born in Tarbes, France, and gave her first recital at the age of five, subsequently studying at the Paris Conservatoire with Marcel Ciampi (who had formerly taught Yaltah and Hephzibah Menuhin) where, aged only fourteen, she was awarded first prize in the piano graduation class of 1950. She has won major prizes in numerous international competitions including the Marguerite Long-Jacques Thibaud in Geneva, the 4th prize in the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition in Belgium (in 1956, when other contestants included Vladimir Ashkenazy who won the 1st prize, John Browning, Lazar Berman, Tamás Vásáry and Peter Frankl), the Busoni and the Van Cliburn.
She has performed throughout the world and recorded a vast repertoire including concertos of Brahms, Grieg, Liszt, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, Rachmaninov, Ravel and Poulenc under the distinguished direction of Kurt Masur, Simon Rattle, Neville Marriner, etc. She won the coveted Grand Prix du Disque of the Charles Cros Academy for her recording of the Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2 with Kurt Masur.
Cécile has always had a great interest and love for teaching and coaching young talent. This has resulted in many Master Classes in the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia and the Far East. Participation in her annual Master class sessions, held since 1984 in the beautiful medieval village of Puycelsi in south-west France, are eagerly sought after. She is a frequent adjudicator for major competitions such as Van Cliburn, Rubinstein, Leeds and Bremen. She is particularly noted for her recordings of Ravel, Chopin, Liszt, Rachmaninoff and Debussy.
In December 2006, Ousset retired from public performance due to health problems related to her back.
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