The Fontainebleau Associations presents the famed professor of harmony and counterpoint, ISABELLE DUHA, in an exploration of the music of Claude Debussy.
Isabelle Duha, piano
Hannah Cho, violin
Debussy, who loved to sign his name Claude de France, is probably the most “French” of all French composers. His music exemplifies the highest traditions of French art and taste, but also its hedonistic character, and his free approach to form and harmony sparked the musical movements of the 20th and 21st centuries, inspiring composers from Igor Stravinsky to Pierre Boulez to Tristan Murail. Isabelle Duha will explore Debussy’s colorful and sensual music.
A graduate of the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (CNSMDP), Isabelle Duha performs as a pianist specializing in chamber music and is a professor of harmony and counterpoint. She has taught at many prestigious institutions including CNSMDP, Ecole Normale Supérieure (Ulm), Conservatoire Américain de Fontainebleau, Académie internationale de Nice, Académie Sibélius d’Helsinki (Finland) and the Royal Conservatory (The Hague, Netherlands). It is at the Conservatoire Américain de Fontainebleau that Isabelle Duha continues the work of Nadia Boulanger, who taught there for over five decades and inspired so many American musicians and composers. Intent on revealing the subtleties of what she calls "langage musical," or "the language of music," to a wider public, she has conceived of a series of concert-lectures dedicated to composers or themes such as Bach, Schumann, Debussy, and the Art of the "Ballet Russes."
I met Dominique Troncin, Isabelle Duha and Tristan Murail that first summer and my life and music were never the same again. The following year, I decided to move to France rather than pursue graduate work and my first stop was a return to Fontainebleau. From there, I began to work privately with Murail and also with Duha at her conservatory in Issy-les-Mollineaux.
- Joshua Fineberg, composer
Isabelle Duha was also there, and I studied theory with her in a fabulous way. After this experience, I continued to study with her in a conservatory, and she has certainly been one of my most important teachers.
- Fabian Lévy, composer
...with Mme. Duha, my eyes were opened to a whole new level of musicianship education, which would form a new musical foundation that enabled me to experience and study music of all time periods with greater depth and skill.
- Anthony Paul De Ritis, MBA, PhD
Professor, Northeastern University
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Program
Clair de lune (Suite Bergamasque)
La terrasse des audiences du clair de lune (Preludes book 2, No. 7)
La soirée dans Grenade (Estampes, No. 2)
Nuages (From Nocturnes for orchestra. Transcription for piano solo)
Sonata for violin and piano with Hannah Cho, violin
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$20. General Admission
$10. Fontainebleau alumni and students with ID
Purchase tickets on Eventbrite.
The lecture will be in English.
Co-sponsored by the Fontainebleau Associations and La Maison Française