Céleste Alkan (born Céleste Morhange, after marriage Céleste Marix) (25 February 1812 – 25 December 1897), was a French musician, the sister of the pianist and composer Charles-Valentin Alkan and the music professor Napoléon Alkan.
Life
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She was born Céleste Morhange in Paris on 25 February 1812 to Jewish parents, Alkan Morhange and his wife Julie (née Abraham).[1]
From 1819 until 1832 she was a student at the Paris Conservatoire under the name Céleste Alkan, where she studied solfége (gaining first prize in 1823), singing and basso continuo.[2] In 1828 she was a class-mate at the Conservatoire of Cornélie Falcon, who became her friend.[3][4] She left the Conservatoire in 1832 as a consequence of absence and illness.[5]
On September 14, 1837 Céleste married a cousin, Mayer Marix,[6] a dealer in musical instruments, and the inventor of a portable organ, the "harmoniflûte".[7][8] Their daughter, Marie Marix, was a singer who participated in C.-V. Alkan's series of Petits concerts in Paris in the 1870s. Their second daughter, Albertine, was the mother of the artist Jacques Nam.[9]
Céleste Alkan is buried in Montmartre Cemetery in the same grave as her brother Charles-Valentin.[10]
References
edit- Notes
- ^ Brigitte François-Sappey (2013), p. 86.
- ^ François-Sappey (2013), p. 86.
- ^ François-Sappey (2013), p. 92.
- ^ François Luguenot, "Une lettre de Cornélie Falcon",Bulletin de la Société Alkan no 40, March 1998, p. 8 (accessed 30 June 2017).
- ^ François-Sappey (1991), p. 306.
- ^ François-Sappey (1991), p. 305.
- ^ François-Sappey (2013), p. 112.
- ^ Watherhouse (1993), p. 272.
- ^ Smith (2001), I, p. 85.
- ^ François-Sappey (1991), p. 309.
- Sources
- François-Sappey, Brigitte (ed.) (1991). Charles Valentin Alkan. Paris: Fayard. ISBN 9782213027791
- François-Sappey, Brigitte and François Luguenot (2013). Charles-Valentin Alkan. Paris: Bleu Nuit. ISBN 9782358840231
- Smith, Ronald (2000). Alkan: The Man, The Music. London: Kahn and Averill. ISBN 9781871082739
- Waterhouse, William (1993). The New Langwill Index: A Dictionary of Musical Wind-Instrument Makers and Inventors, London: Bingham. ISBN 9780946113040