Christine Fonlupt

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Biography

Pianist, chamber musician, and project director, Christine Fonlupt stands out as a prominent figure in modern piano. Recently, she has performed on various stages such as the Salle Cortot (2023 with actor William Mesguich), the Théâtre du Lucernaire, and the Avignon Festival (2019, performance with singer Anne Baquet), the Berlioz Festival (2023, show on George Sand/Frederic Chopin), the Philharmonie de Paris with Piano Orchestra (2019, 2021, 2023), the Opéra Comique (2006, 2021), the Comédie Française (2000–2003), the Amphithéâtre Bastille (1998), and a tour in Prague, Vienna, Terezin (2022, repertoire by Jewish composers from the Terezin camp) with the orchestra Les Métamorphoses.

In terms of recordings, she released a solo piano album of works by Fauré, Debussy, and Chausson from the 1890s (2023 Passavant Music), two Argentine tango albums with the Encuentro Tango Quintet (2017 Buda Music and 2023 Passavant Music), and works by Eric Lebrun (2022 Chanteloup).

Since 2019, she has led Piano Orchestra, an ambitious and original project bringing 100 pianists on stage, performing a repertoire specially created and arranged for this ensemble. She arranges many multi-hand piano pieces for the Philharmonie de Paris.
During the lockdown, she formed a unique trio with her 11th arrondissement collaborators, Valérie Aimard (cello) and Anne Baquet (soprano), and created the cabaret-concert show “La girafe confite”, which is currently touring in France.
Since September 2022, she has developed a new performance based on George Sand's autobiography “Histoire de ma vie: George Sand et Frédéric Chopin”, in which she selects and performs Chopin’s works on piano, with actress Céline Dupas-Hutin and artistic collaboration from William Mesguich.

Trained by Christian Bernard and Janine Collet at the CRR in Grenoble, then by Bruno Rigutto and Nicholas Angelich at the CNSMD in Paris, she earned top prizes in piano and chamber music before joining the chamber music advanced cycle at the CNSM in Lyon. She also received guidance from Marie-Françoise Buquet, Brigitte Engerer, and Jean-Claude Pennetier, giving her deep insight into the 20th-century French repertoire. She holds a piano teaching diploma (CA) and a Musicology degree from the Sorbonne.

Her musical versatility has led her to perform on many stages (Paris, France, Austria, China, Germany, Italy, Morocco…). Early on, she worked as a stage pianist for numerous theatre productions (Opéra Comique, Opéra Bastille, Comédie Française…). She has created numerous youth shows, four of which were selected by the Jeunesses Musicales de France (JMF) (Babar's Story, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin).
From 2000 to 2010, she was artistic director of the Festival des Nuits musicales Catalanes in Perpignan, where many musicians joined her on stage (Anne Queffélec, Olivier Charlier, Roland Pidoux, Patrice Fontanarosa, Emmanuelle Bertrand, Pascal Amoyel, Laurent Cabasso, Marielle Nordmann…).

She is the artistic director of the association Arteka 11, which organizes numerous concerts across France. Dedicated to sharing her passions with the musicians of tomorrow, she teaches at the Conservatoire National de Musique et de Danse de Paris (75019), at the École Normale de Musique "Alfred Cortot" (75017), and at the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional de Saint-Maur-des-Fossés (94).