Céleste Alkan (born Céleste Morhange, after marriage Céleste Marix) (25 February 1812 – 25 December 1897), was a French musician, the sister of the pianist and composer

Charles-Valentin Alkan Charles-Valentin Alkan (; 30 November 1813 – 29 March 1888) was a French Jewish composer and virtuoso pianist. At the height of his fame in the 1830s and 1840s he was, alongside his friends and colleagues Frédéric Chopin and Franz Lisz ...

and the music professor

Napoléon Alkan Napoléon Alexandre Alkan, born Napoléon Alexandre Morhange (2 February 1826 – August 1906), was a French composer and music teacher. Career Alkan was born in Paris, one of six children of Alkan Morhange and Julie Abraham. The family was Jewis ...

Life

She was born Céleste Morhange in Paris on 25 February 1812 to

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...

ish parents, Alkan Morhange and his wife Julie (née Abraham). From 1819 until 1832 she was a student 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 ...

under the name Céleste Alkan, where she studied solfége (gaining first prize in 1823), singing and

basso continuo Basso continuo parts, almost universal in the Baroque era (1600–1750), provided the harmonic structure of the music by supplying a bassline and a chord progression. The phrase is often shortened to continuo, and the instrumentalists playing th ...

. In 1828 she was a class-mate at the Conservatoire of

Cornélie Falcon Cornélie Falcon (28 January 1814 – 25 February 1897) was a French soprano who sang at the Opéra in Paris. Her greatest success was creating the role of Valentine in Meyerbeer's ''Les Huguenots''. She possessed "a full, resonant voice"Warrack ...

, who became her friend. She left the Conservatoire in 1832 as a consequence of absence and illness. On September 14, 1837 Céleste married a cousin, Mayer Marix, a dealer in musical instruments, and the inventor of a portable organ, the "harmoniflûte". Their daughter, Marie Marix, was a singer who participated in C.-V. Alkan's series of ''Petits concerts'' in Paris in the 1870s. Their second daughter, Albertine, was the mother of the artist . Céleste Alkan is buried in

Montmartre Cemetery The Cemetery of Montmartre (french: link=no, Cimetière de Montmartre) is a cemetery in the 18th arrondissement of Paris, France, that dates to the early 19th century. Officially known as the Cimetière du Nord, it is the third largest necropolis ...

in the same grave as her brother Charles-Valentin.François-Sappey (1991), p. 309.

References

;Notes ;Sources * François-Sappey, Brigitte (ed.) (1991). ''Charles Valentin Alkan''. Paris: Fayard. * François-Sappey, Brigitte and François Luguenot (2013). ''Charles-Valentin Alkan''. Paris: Bleu Nuit. * Smith, Ronald (2000). ''Alkan: The Man, The Music''. London: Kahn and Averill. * Waterhouse, William (1993). ''The New Langwill Index: A Dictionary of Musical Wind-Instrument Makers and Inventors'', London: Bingham. {{DEFAULTSORT:Alkan, Celeste 1814 births 1897 deaths Musicians from Paris Conservatoire de Paris alumni Burials at Montmartre Cemetery 19th-century French musicians Jewish women musicians 19th-century French women musicians French Ashkenazi Jews