Renée Chemet Explained

Renée Chemet
Birth Name:Renée Henriette Joséphine Chemet
Birth Date:1887 1, df=yes
Birth Place:Boulogne-sur-Seine
Death Place:Paris
Nationality:French
Other Names:Renée Chemet-Decreus (after marriage)
Occupation:violinist
Spouse:Camille Decreus

Renée Chemet (9 January 1887 – 2 January 1977) was a French violinist.

Early life

Renée Henriette Joséphine Chemet was born in Boulogne-sur-Seine. She studied with Henri Berthelier at the Conservatoire de Paris, graduating in 1902.[1]

Career

Chemet toured the world as a violinist for decades, playing a violin made by Giovanni Battista Guadagnini. In 1904, still a teenager, she was a soloist at the Proms concerts in London, under conductor Henry Wood. In 1907, she toured North America as a violinist with her husband, pianist Camille Decreus, in the company of Emma Calvé.[2] [3] "Madame Chemet is a violinist of great talent", explained a reviewer who heard her in Hamburg in 1911, "with great skill, splendid technique, and big (rather manly) tone. Her style of playing is eminently French; she sometimes overdoes it by forcing sentiment and cantilène."[4]

During World War I, when travel was difficult, she gave benefit concerts and performed for the troops in France, and worked as a nurse's aide; she was awarded the Legion of Honour for her service.[5]

After the war, Chemet was a soloist in Liverpool, Birmingham, Nottingham, Bradford, Cardiff, Edinburgh, and Glasgow in 1920.[6] In the latter half of 1920, Chemet gave a number of joint recitals with the Russian tenor Vladimir Rosing.[7] In New York, she played at Carnegie Hall in 1921, at Aeolian Hall in 1923,[8] Town Hall in 1927,[9] and at the Metropolitan Opera House in 1925 and 1928.[10] [11] Throughout the 1920s, she made many recordings,[12] [13] and appeared regularly on radio. "Radio paves the way," she told a New York Times interviewer in 1930. "It popularizes tunes, the great symphony orchestras, the talented singers and instrumental soloists that would be ignored without this medium."[14] She played Maud Powell's violin[15] on the radio in New York in 1925.[16] [17]

Chemet traveled through Hawaii to Japan in 1932, to perform with pianist Anca Seidlova and koto player Michio Miyagi.[18] [19] [20] Later that year, she performed with the BBC Orchestra.[21]

Personal life

Chemet married fellow French musician Camille Decreus in 1906.[22] He died in 1939. She died in 1977, at age 89, in Paris.

External links

Notes and References

  1. E. Windust, "Renee Chemet-Decreus" The Strad (July 1909): 130-131.
  2. https://books.google.com/books?id=nxJIAQAAMAAJ&dq=renee+chemet&pg=RA14-PA23 "The Calve Concert Sale"
  3. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/29752959/renee_chemet_1907/ "Program for Calve Concert"
  4. https://books.google.com/books?id=5-k2AQAAMAAJ&dq=renee+chemet&pg=RA1-PA295 "Music in Hamburg"
  5. https://books.google.com/books?id=crXvAAAAMAAJ&dq=renee+chemet&pg=RA10-PA6 "Celebrated Violinist is in America"
  6. https://books.google.com/books?id=6JkPAAAAYAAJ&dq=renee+chemet&pg=PA196 "Music in the Provinces"
  7. "Mme. Chemet’s Violin Playing." London Times, 16 Jul 1920.
  8. Richard Aldrich, "Renee Chemet's Recital" New York Times (23 November 1923): 21. via ProQuest
  9. "Violin Recital by Chemet" New York Times (6 December 1927): 25. via ProQuest
  10. "Renee Chemet in Concert" New York Times (14 December 1925): 19. via ProQuest
  11. "Renee Chemet in Opera Concert" New York Times (24 December 1928): 18. via ProQuest
  12. https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/talent/detail/25549/Chemet_Rene_instrumentalist_violin Renée Chemet
  13. https://books.google.com/books?id=TZpQAAAAYAAJ&dq=renee+chemet&pg=RA26-PA16 "Three Celebrated Pianists and Famous Violinist Added to Roster of Chickering Artists' Department"
  14. "An Artist Reveals a Love for Radio" New York Times (9 March, 19300: 155. via ProQuest
  15. "Noted Baritone and Violinist to Broadcast on Thursday" New York Times (8 February 1925): XX15. via ProQuest
  16. Peter Tschmuck, Creativity and Innovation in the Music Industry (Springer Science and Business Media 2006): 55.
  17. "The Microphone will Present" New York Times (20 April 1930): 116. via ProQuest
  18. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/29753256/renee_chemet_1932/ "Madame Chemet is Planning Concert Here This Summer"
  19. https://www.komuso.com/people/people.pl?person=663 Miyagi Michio
  20. Ena Kajino, "A Lost Opportunity for Tradition: The Violin in Early Twentieth-Century Japanese Traditional Music" Nineteenth-Century Music Review 10(2)(December 2013): 293-321.
  21. G. A. H., "An Orchestra Concert" The Guardian (7 November 1932): 10. via Newspapers.com
  22. https://books.google.com/books?id=W5xCAQAAMAAJ&dq=renee+chemet&pg=RA13-PA47 "Music in Paris"