Biography

Emilie Capulet is an associate lecturer in the Music Department at the University of Surrey, and teaches on the BMus and MMus degree programmes: Romanticism, 18th and 19th Century Aesthetics, Historical Performance Practice and Opera Studies.

"Under Emilie's fingers, the notes dance, cascade, and bewitch the audience. A moment of pure magic...” La Provence

 Audio clips of recordings:

Chopin, Ballade no. 4 in F minor, op. 52

Ravel, Ondine

Franco-British pianist, Emilie Capulet, was born in Aix-en-Provence, France. She studied the piano at the Conservatoire there and in Marseille where she was awarded several prizes, making her solo recital debut at the age of 14 in the Aix-en-Provence Summer Music Festival Rising Stars series. She subsequently spent a year at the Conservatorium in Sydney, Australia, studying with William Corbett-Jones, visiting professor from the University of San Francisco. In 2000, she gained a place at the prestigious Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London, in Advanced Instrumental Studies, studying with Professor Paul Roberts. She was awarded a Master of Music degree in 2001 and a Postgraduate Diploma in Music Performance in 2002. Since then, Emilie has performed as a soloist and chamber musician in international music festivals and renowned concert halls in Europe, the USA, Latin America and Canada. She is also regularly invited on luxury ocean cruise liners as guest artist on Musical Festivals at Sea as well as musical river cruises down the Danube and the Rhine. She has just released a CD of works by Beethoven and Chopin with BMP.

In addition to her successful solo career, Emilie has built a strong reputation as a lecture-recitalist, giving illustrated talks on the relations between music, literature and painting in international literary and music conferences. Her interest in the arts as a whole has earned her an MA on Shakespeare as well as a PhD on the musicality of Modernist literature. Her work proved to be particularly innovative and groundbreaking and her thesis was rewarded with the highest French doctoral distinction, ‘Mention Très Honorable avec les Félicitations du Jury à l’Unanimité’. She published a book on Virginia Woolf and Music with Bloomsbury Heritage in 2009 and has also written many articles on Impressionist music, Modernism, the musicalization of fiction, and multimedia performance practices.

While touring Latin America, Emilie received the ‘ExpressArte’ award for her exceptional contribution to Nicaraguan culture and art.

Publications

Publication List

Monographs:

Virginia Woolf – a Musical Life, Bloomsbury Heritage Series, London:Cecil Woolf Publishing, June 2009.

Articles and book chapters:

'Leaving things in a mess: Virginia Woolf, autonomy and the musical paradigm', Autonomy and Commitment in Twentieth-Century British Literature. Montpellier: Presses Universitaires de Montpellier, collection Present Perfect. Forthcoming Autumn 2012

Through the looking glass: transmediality in musicalized narratives of the Modernist period', Universitatsverlag C. Winter Heidelberg. Forthcoming Autumn 2012.

‘Voicing the Music in Literature: “Musicality” as a Travelling Concept’, European Journal of English Studies, 13.1: Travelling Concepts, eds Birgit Neumann & Frederik Tygstrup, May 2009, pp. 79-91.

‘Musical Aesthetics in Virginia Woolf’s The String Quartet’, Journal of the Short Story in English, vol. 50, ed. Christine Reynier, Anger: Presses Universitaires d’Anger, Spring 2008, pp. 201-215.

‘From the traditional classical piano recital to the interactive multimedia event: the aesthetic consequences of a move towards intermediality in contemporary performance practice’, Culture, Language and Representation, Vol. 5, special edition on ‘Intermediality in Contemporary Culture’, Guest Editor: Freda Chapple, May 2008, pp. 123-138.

‘Consciousness and the Imagination in the Music of the French Impressionists’, CLA (‘Consciousness, Literature and the Arts’), peer-reviewed journal, ed. Daniel Meyer-Dinkgräfe, December 2007. [online]

 ‘Virginia Woolf and the Music of the Mind’, Consciousness, Theatre, Literature and the Arts 2007, ed. Daniel Meyer-Dinkgräfe, Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2007, pp. 289-308.

Creative Writing:

‘Studio Silence’, Winner of the ‘Discovering through Enquiry’ short story competition 2007, SCEPTrE, University of Surrey.

Conference Poster:

‘From intermediality to interdisciplinarity, a new critical  methodology for the study of music and literature: Virginia Woolf’s The Waves’, awarded the Conference’s “Best Poster” Prize (Research Staff), Festival of Research, University of Surrey, November 2007.

Programme notes:

Programme notes for concerts and recitals on works by composers including J.S. Bach, Scarlatti, Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin,  Liszt, Rachmaninov, Prokoviev, Debussy, Ravel, Albeniz, Ohana and Messiaen.

Media and Multimedia:

Radio Interview, Radio Canada, CBC, August 2012.

Radio Interview, BBC Southern Counties, March 2011.

Radio Interview, France Bleu Provence, April 2011. 

Television Interview, Canal 12, Nicaragua, July 2008.

Television Interview, Cien por ciento Noticias, Nicaragua, July 2008.

Live concert broadcast, Radio Dario, Nicaragua, June 2008.

“Music as a stimulus for enquiry : a concert pianist's perspective”, interactive multimedia webpage, SCEPTrE (Surrey Centre for Excellence in Professional Training and Education), June 2007, online: http://complexworld.pbwiki.com/Emilie

Radio Interview,BBC 4 Southern Counties, December 2004.

Radio Interview, Radio Zinzine, France, July 2002.

Papers, Presentations and Lecture-recitals given at

Conferences and Research Seminars

'Beyond the boundaries of music: Impressionism in Debussy and Ravel', RMA Annueal Conference, London, July 2010

‘Collaboration and Tradition’, joint presentation by Emilie Crapoulet (pianist) and Tom Armstrong (composer). Collaborative Processes in Music Making: Pedagogy and Practice, PALATINE, University of Surrey, November 2009.

 ‘Music/Literature Interdisciplinarity at Doctoral Level in Higher Education’, invited keynote speaker, Literature and Music Research – Workshop for Graduate Students and Supervisors, School of Advanced Study, Senate House, London, July 2009.

‘Debussy’s unspoken narratives: story-telling in thePreludes’, lecture-recital, Sixth Biennial International Conference on Music since 1900, Keele University, July 2009.

‘Ravel’s Gaspard de la Nuit:: narratives in performance’, paper, Word and Music Studies: Seventh International Conference, Vienna, June 2009.

‘From Monet to Debussy: Music and Painting’, lecture given on board the M/S Amadeus Classic for Notre Temps, ‘Rhine Musical Cruise’, 6^th of May 2009.

‘Debussy, Ravel and Albeniz’, lecture-recital (invited lecture-recitalist),Conference on Autonomy & Commitment in Modernist British Arts, Université Paul Valéry-Montpellier III, March 2009.

‘Leaving things in a mess: Virginia Woolf, autonomy and the musical paradigm’, paper, Conference on Autonomy & Commitment in Modernist British Arts, Université Paul Valéry-Montpellier III, March 2009.

‘Capriccio’: avant-premiere of his new piece for piano, written for Emilie Crapoulet’, lecture-recital given jointly with Tom Armstrong, Department of Music, King’s College, London, March 2009.

 ‘Suggesting versus showing: Virginia Woolf’s cinema of the future’, paper, Conference on Modernism and the Visual Arts, Oxford University, UK, 1^st-2^nd of November 2008.

‘Seeing the music: colour, sound and texture in the art of the début-du-siècle’, illustrated lecture given at the National Gallery, London for the Royal Musical Association ‘Musical Iconography’ Study Day, Courteauld Institute/National Gallery, London, March 2008.

‘Musical performances as immersive experiences in Higher Education’, interactive recital/workshop (invited conference facilitator), Appreciating the Power of Immersive Experience Conference, Surrey Centre for Excellence in Professional Training and Education (SCEPTrE), University of Surrey, UK, January 2008.

‘Through the looking-glass: transmediality in musicalized narratives of the Modernist period’, paper (invited speaker),Transmediality and Interdisciplinary Research Colloquium, Johannes-Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany, December 2007.

 ‘Transmediality and transculturality in Performance: from Aloysius Bertrand’s La Nuit et ses Sortileges to Ravel’s Gaspard de la Nuit’, lecture-recital (guest lecture-recitalist), Transmediality and Interdisciplinary Research Colloquium, Johannes-Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany, December 2007.

‘From intermediality to interdisciplinarity, a new critical  methodology for the study of music and literature: Virginia Woolf’s The Waves’, poster presentation, awarded the Conference’s “Best Poster” Prize (Research Staff), Festival of Research, University of Surrey, UK November 2007.

‘Facilitating Enquiry: a concert pianist's perspective: From interpretation to performance, music as a model of enquiry’, interactive musical recital/enquiring conversation (invited speaker), Learning for a Complex World, ‘Facilitating Enquiry’ Annual Conference 2007, SCEPTrE Centre, University of Surrey, UK, June 2007

‘The music of the mind: music and Modernist stream of consciousness literature’, paper (invited speaker), Second International Conference on Consciousness, Theatre, Literature and the Arts, University of Wales, Aberystwyth, May 2007.

‘Consciousness and the Imagination in the Music of the French Impressionists (Debussy, Ravel and Albeniz)’, lecture-recital (guest lecture-recitalist), Second International Conference on Consciousness, Theatre, Literature and the Arts, University of Wales, Aberystwyth, May 2007.

‘Virginia Woolf’s aesthetics: beyond the boundaries of language’, paper, 16^th International Virginia Woolf Conference, “Woolfian Boundaries”, University of Birmingham, UK, June 2006.

‘Virginia Woolf’s “The String Quartet”’, presentation, School of Arts Research Seminar, University of Surrey, UK, December 2005.

‘Virginia Woolf and the Impressionists’, lecture/recital, Guildford International Book Festival 2005 in collaboration with the University of Surrey Book Circle, University of Surrey, UK, October 2005.

‘Virginia Woolf: Exploring the Sound of Music’, paper, followed by an evening solo piano recital of French Impressionist music, 15^th International Virginia Woolf Conference 2005, “The Art of Exploration” , Lewis and Clark College, Portland, Oregon (USA), June 2005.

‘Student Volunteering in Britain’, live international video-conference with Indiana University (USA), Student Volunteering Conference 2005, University College, London, UK, April 2005.

‘The Musicalization of Fiction: Counterpoint in Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway’, paper, Royal Musical Association Annual Research Students’ Conference, Universities of Durham and Newcastle, March 2005.

‘Virginia Woolf and Music’, lecture/recital, Guildford International Music Festival 2005, Guildford Institute, Guildford, UK.

‘Musical forms and aesthetics in the works of Virginia Woolf’, presentation, School of Arts Research Seminar, University of Surrey, UK, December 2004. 

‘Figures of power in the music of Purcell and Handel’, lecture-recital, History Research Seminar, Université de Provence, France, also given for the Literature and Culture Lecture Series at the English bookstore ‘Book in Bar’, Aix-en-Provence, France, January 2003.

‘French Impressionism in literature and art’, lectures and presentations given for the "Ravel Project" Research Group directed by Professor Paul Roberts, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London, and also given for the Barbican French Group, St Margaret's Art Group, etc., 2000-2003.