Émile Decombes (9 August 18295 May 1912) (also seen as Descombes) was a French pianist and teacher. Decombes was born in Nîmes. Little is known about his life other than that he was one of the last pupils of

Frédéric Chopin Frédéric François Chopin (born Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin; 1 March 181017 October 1849) was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist of the Romantic period, who wrote primarily for solo piano. He has maintained worldwide renown as a leadin ...

in Paris. He taught piano (the "classe préparatoire") at the

Paris Conservatoire The Conservatoire de Paris (), also known as the Paris Conservatory, is a college of music and dance founded in 1795. Officially known as the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (CNSMDP), it is situated in the avenue ...

between 1875 and 1899, where his students included

Alfred Cortot Alfred Denis Cortot (; 26 September 187715 June 1962) was a French pianist, conductor, and teacher who was one of the most renowned classical musicians of the 20th century. A pianist of massive repertory, he was especially valued for his poetic ...

, Édouard Risler,

Reynaldo Hahn Reynaldo Hahn (; 9 August 1874 – 28 January 1947) was a Venezuelan-born French composer, conductor, music critic, and singer. He is best known for his songs – ''mélodies'' – of which he wrote more than 100. Hahn was born in Caracas b ...

, Gabriel Jaudoin, Joseph Morpain,

Maurice Ravel Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composers rejected the term. In ...

, and

Erik Satie Eric Alfred Leslie Satie (, ; ; 17 May 18661 July 1925), who signed his name Erik Satie after 1884, was a French composer and pianist. He was the son of a French father and a British mother. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire, but was an und ...

(Decombes called him "the laziest student in the Conservatoire"). Besides his teaching, Decombes was also active as the editor of a series of piano arrangements of classical piano concertos called the ''École du Piano – Choix de Concertos des Maîtres. Premiers Solos'', which appeared with the Parisian publisher

Auguste O'Kelly Auguste O'Kelly (13 July 1829 – 16 February 1900) was a Franco-Irish music publisher in Paris between 1872 and 1888. Life Auguste O'Kelly was born as Louis Auguste Kelly in Boulogne-sur-Mer as the second son of the Dublin-born piano teacher Jose ...

from 1875. It had reached 50 volumes by 1888. The series was continued by O'Kelly's successor Mackar & Noël. He was brother to the composer Achille Decombes (died 1893). Decombes died in Paris in 1912, aged 82.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Decombes, Emile 1829 births 1912 deaths 19th-century French male classical pianists French music educators Piano pedagogues Pupils of Frédéric Chopin People from Nîmes Academic staff of the Conservatoire de Paris