Renée Chemet
French violinist (1887–1977)
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Renée Chemet (9 January 1887 – 2 January 1977) was a French violinist.
9 January 1887
Renée Chemet | |
|---|---|
Renée Chemet standing at a microphone, from the George Grantham Bain Collection, Library of Congress. | |
| Born | Renée Henriette Joséphine Chemet 9 January 1887 |
| Died | 2 January 1977 (aged 89) |
| Other names | Renée Chemet-Decreus (after marriage) |
| Alma mater | Conservatoire de Paris |
| Occupation | violinist |
| Spouse | Camille Decreus |
Early life
Renée Henriette Joséphine Chemet was born in Boulogne-sur-Seine. She studied with Henri Berthelier at the Conservatoire de Paris, graduating in 1902.[1]
Career
Chemet toured the world as a violinist for decades, playing a violin made by Giovanni Battista Guadagnini. In 1904, still a teenager, she was a soloist at the Proms concerts in London, under conductor Henry Wood.[1] In 1907, she toured North America as a violinist with her husband, pianist Camille Decreus, in the company of Emma Calvé.[2][3] "Madame Chemet is a violinist of great talent", explained a reviewer who heard her in Hamburg in 1911, "with great skill, splendid technique, and big (rather manly) tone. Her style of playing is eminently French; she sometimes overdoes it by forcing sentiment and cantilène."[4]
During World War I, when travel was difficult, she gave benefit concerts and performed for the troops in France, and worked as a nurse's aide; she was awarded the Legion of Honour for her service.[5]
After the war, Chemet was a soloist in Liverpool, Birmingham, Nottingham, Bradford, Cardiff, Edinburgh, and Glasgow in 1920.[6] In the latter half of 1920, Chemet gave a number of joint recitals with the Russian tenor Vladimir Rosing.[7] In New York, she played at Carnegie Hall in 1921, at Aeolian Hall in 1923,[8] Town Hall in 1927,[9] and at the Metropolitan Opera House in 1925 and 1928.[10][11] Throughout the 1920s, she made many recordings,[12][13] and appeared regularly on radio. "Radio paves the way," she told a New York Times interviewer in 1930. "It popularizes tunes, the great symphony orchestras, the talented singers and instrumental soloists that would be ignored without this medium."[14] She played Maud Powell's violin[15] on the radio in New York in 1925.[16][17]
Chemet traveled through Hawaii to Japan in 1932, to perform with pianist Anca Seidlova and koto player Michio Miyagi.[18][19][20] Later that year, she performed with the BBC Orchestra.[21]
Personal life
Chemet married fellow French musician Camille Decreus in 1906.[22] He died in 1939. She died in 1977, at age 89, in Paris.[citation needed]
