Cécile Chaminade was born in Paris on 8 August 1857. Her interest in music was first kindled by her mother, from whom she received preliminary instruction before pursuing studies under Félix Le Couppey for piano and Benjamin Godard for composition. At the age of eight, she played some of her compositions to Georges Bizet who was most impressed by her talent, dubbing her ‘little Mozart’. All this was pursued, however, on a private basis due to her father’s disapproval of a musical education being undertaken by a young lady of his daughter’s social standing, and it was not until the age of 18 that she gave her first concert.
It was not long, however, before she began to make a serious impression on the Paris music scene, undertaking tours of her native France while her music steadily gained in popularity, garnering, from Ambroise Thomas the famous epithet, ‘This is not a woman who composes, but a composer who is a woman’. In 1892 she made her debut in England where her music was already immensely popular and one of her biggest fans, none other than Queen Victoria, invited her to Windsor Castle. She made many subsequent return tours and in 1897 was awarded the Jubilee Medal from the
