Célia Oneto Bensaïd - American Touches (Prix André Boisseaux 2017) (2020)

Surrounded by art since her childhood, especially of the theater and dramatic arts, Célia Oneto Bensaid decided that she will tell stories on the piano, this rich instrument allowing to interpret so many repertories!

Celia studies at the National Conservatory in Paris where she obtains five diploma and prizes with the best honors : piano (Claire Désert), accompaniment (direction of singing with Erika Guiomar, vocal accompaniment with Anne Le Bozec and piano accompaniment with Jean-Frédéric Neuburger ) and chamber music (Claire Désert and Ami Flammer).

Celia also studies with Rene Shereshevskaya since 2010 and continues at Ecole Normale Alfred Cortot, where she graduated as a concert pianist in 2018. Following many masterclasses, she also studied with Anne Queffelec, Maria-Joao Pires and Jean-Claude Pennetier.

Laureate of numerous international competitions in piano solo and chamber music (Piano Campus, Cziffra Foundation, Nadia and Lili Boulanger competition, Bonneton competition, Fauré competition, Poulenc competition), she also receives the public prize of the Geneva Arts Society in 2017.

She performs regularly as a soloist but also with partners in chamber music. She is invited to play with orchestras (Orchestra of the Republican Guard, Orchestra of the Toulon Opera, Ensemble Appassionato etc.) and she plays in famous festivals and venues such as the great Philharmonie de Paris, Piano at the Jacobins, the Festival La Roque d’Anthéron , the Folle Journée de Nantes, at the Grand Théâtre de Harbin (China), at the Salamanca Hall (Japan). She played already in Russia, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Algeria and in the United States.

She is invited to play in various radio programs: France Musique: Young Generation; Festivals magazines, Morning programs.

In 2017, Celia is supported by the Safran Foundation and becomes a laureate of Pro Musicis and Banque Populaire. She is also laureate of the Royaumont Foundation and becomes in 2018 HSBC laureate of the Academy of the Lyric festival of Aix-en-Provence.

The André Boisseaux Prize allows her to record her first solo album “American Touches”, published in 2018. This album, released under the label Soupir, is devoted to American composers such as Gershwin and Bernstein and includes her own transcriptions of orchestral works. This CD received very good critics of important music journalists.

The young French composer Camille Pépin dedicated several pieces to Celia who records her chamber music works in a CD that appeared in February 2019 under the label NoMadMusic. This CD received the best distinctions like the CHOC CLASSICA, FFF Télérama…etc.

Celia Oneto Bensaid will give her debut at the Montreal Bourgie Hall and at Wigmore Hall in London during the season 2019/2020.