Cecilia's Bio
Reviews
Cecilia Dunoyer’s 1997 New York debut in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, performed to a sold-out audience, garnered rave reviews. Harris Goldsmith praised her “accomplished pianism … her elegantly assured prestidigitation… her firm, richly bronzen tone and an unmistakable ear for orchestral textures and colors. If Fauré was well served by Ms. Dunoyer, her Debussy proved even more impressive…” An invitation to perform in New York again at Merkin Hall followed in May 1998 in a program of 20th-century French and Japanese music, which The New York Times most favorably reviewed.
Cecilia Dunoyer has concertized extensively in the United States and her native Europe, including recitals in Paris, New York, Washington, Vienna and Weimar, as well as a tour of the Baltic Sea to Russia, Finland and the Scandinavian countries. Since 1999, she has appeared regularly at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC. A series of eight concerts and lectures entitled “A Century of French Music” were so enthusiastically received that return engagements are booked yearly, including lecture-recitals on Claude Debussy in 2003, and a “1920’s Paris” series in 2004.
She has performed as a soloist with orchestras in Maine, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Washington, and France concertos ranging from Mozart to Ravel and Gershwin.
She recently formed a sonata duo with violinist Julie Savignon. On their Paris debut in November 2004 featuring French music, critics noted the duo’s “perfect complicity” and its “remarkable alchemy between rigor and freedom.” Re-engagements are planned for next season in France and the U.S.A.
Cecilia Dunoyer is the author of Marguerite Long, A Life in French Music published by Indiana University Press in 1993, and simultaneously translated in French and released by Editions Findakly in Paris the same year. The book has received critical acclaim and an interview with Dunoyer was featured on “Performance Today” on National Public Radio. Ms. Dunoyer was also the guest for a series of ten radio shows for Radio-Canada (of the CBC in Montreal) entitled "Pour le Clavier" (For the Piano).
February 2000 marked the publication of Debussy in Performance (Yale University Press) in which Dunoyer was invited to write about early performances of Debussy’s piano music. The book has been acclaimed in the London Literary Times and includes contributions from such eminent music personalities as Pierre Boulez and Inghelbrecht.
Cecilia Dunoyer grew up in Italy, Austria, Switzerland and France. Following her studies in Paris, she worked with the great Hungarian pianist, Gyorgy Sandor, earning both Bachelor's and Master's degrees in piano with High Distinction from the University of Michigan. Subsequently, she received a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Maryland. An Associate Fellow of Silliman College, Yale University, since 1984, Ms. Dunoyer has served on the piano faculty at Penn
State University. She has made State College her home with Taylor Greer and their three children.