Maud Caillat

A pianist, composer and musicologist, Maud Caillat started her musical training at 6, studying Dalcroze eurhythmics and baroque singing in a children choir. Her formal studies began in Paris where she met the Swiss pianist and pedagogue Claudine Perretti, a former pupil of Alfred Cortot and Magda Tagliaferro, who passed on to her the French performance traditions as well as other interpretative devices. She went onto studying harmony, counterpoint and orchestration at the Geneva High School for Music, from where she graduated with a Master's degree of Arts HES-SO in composition and music theory. In the meantime she was given advice by Marcel Bitsch who encouraged her to continue composing. In 2001, she was awarded a scholarship by the Orford Arts Centre (Canada) that enabled her to participated in master-classes given by Menahem Pressler, André Laplante and Robert Silverman. 

 

Maud Caillat won further recognition in international music contests, receiving a grant from Zonta international, 2004, an Accomplished Musician Award at the IBLA Grand Prize Composition Competition, 2006, the Stravinsky Prize from the Igor Stravinsky Foundation, 2012 and a First Prize at the Bradshaw and Buono International Piano Competition, 2013. 

 

With a strong interest in Scarlatti, Mozart, as well as romantic and 20th century Russian piano works, she has performed in concert venues and music festivals, in France, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy, USA and Canada: Château de Coudrée concert series ; Frank Martin Hall, Palais de l’Athénée, Théâtre les Salons, Red Cross Museum (Geneva) ; Eglise Saint-Merry, Association Art Contemporain Sèvres, Salle André Marchal of Institut National des Jeunes Aveugles, Salle Cortot, Amphithéâtre Richelieu Sorbonne, UNESCO Headquarters (Paris), Carnegie Weill Hall (New York) ; Feast of Music, Studio Ernest Ansermet for Mozart Year, Schubertiade d’Espace 2, Le Hameau de Verbier, Ragusa Ibla Festival and Orford Music Festival. 

 

As a composer, she has works to her credit such as a Piano Concerto, a Fantasy for piano and orchestra, solo piano pieces and an opera that is at the planning stage. Her compositional language is sometimes reminding of late romanticism, which gives a particular beauty to her works, with specific lyricism and noticeable sense of form.

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Maud Caillat holds a PhD in Musicology and Cultural History from Paris- Sorbonne University with a thesis entitled "East and West Cultural Confrontation During the Cold War At the Marguerite Long International Piano Competition (from 1947 to 1979)“. The content focuses on the links between French and Soviet piano schools as well as the mechanisms of international competitions. Since 2008, she has held a teaching position in Music Management and Musicological Research at this university. Both her musicological and compositional skills led her to complete Mozart’s Fantasy in d minor K. 397, which is available on Youtube : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fog_y-nBQxg and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpmC0ikVaPA .