Musicians from Paris

Charles-Valentin Alkan (French: [ʃaʁl valɑ̃tɛ̃ alkɑ̃]; 30 November 1813 – 29 March 1888) was a French 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 Liszt, among the leading pianists in Paris, a city in which he spent virtually his entire life.
Alkan earned many awards at the Conservatoire de Paris, which he entered before he was six. His career in the salons and concert halls of Paris was marked by his occasional long withdrawals from public performance, for personal reasons. Although he had a wide circle of friends and acquaintances in the Parisian artistic world, including Eugène Delacroix and George Sand, from 1848 he began to adopt a reclusive life style, while continuing with his compositions – virtually all of which are for the keyboard. During this period he published, among other works, his collections of large-scale studies in all the major keys (Op. 35) and all the minor keys (Op. 39). The latter includes his Symphony for Solo Piano (Op. 39, nos. 4–7) and Concerto for Solo Piano (Op. 39, nos. 8–10), which are often considered among his masterpieces and are of great musical and technical complexity. Alkan emerged from self-imposed retirement in the 1870s to give a series of recitals that were attended by a new generation of French musicians.
Alkan's attachment to his Jewish origins is displayed both in his life and his work. He was the first composer to incorporate Jewish melodies in art music. Fluent in Hebrew and Greek, he devoted much time to a complete new translation of the Bible into French. This work, like many of his musical compositions, is now lost. Alkan never married, but his presumed son Élie-Miriam Delaborde was, like Alkan, a virtuoso performer on both the piano and the pedal piano, and edited a number of the elder composer's works.
Following his death (which according to persistent but unfounded legend was caused by a falling bookcase), Alkan's music became neglected, supported by only a few musicians including Ferruccio Busoni, Egon Petri and Kaikhosru Sorabji. From the late 1960s onwards, led by Raymond Lewenthal and Ronald Smith, many pianists have recorded his music and brought it back into the repertoire.

Pierre Papadiamandis (31 January 1937 – 22 March 2022) was a French songwriter and pianist.

Laurence Equilbey (born 6 March 1962) is a French conductor, known for her work in the choral repertoire, and more recently as the founder and music director of the Insula Orchestra.Equilbey studied piano and flute in her early life. She undertook formal music education in Paris, Vienna, London and Scandinavia. Her teachers included Eric Ericson, Denise Ham, Colin Metters and Jorma Panula.
Equilbey founded the chamber choir Accentus in 1991, and continues as its music director. With Accentus, she has conducted commercial recordings for such labels as Naïve. In 1995, she founded the Jeune Chœur de Paris, which in 2002 was incorporated as a department of the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional de Paris. She co-directs the programme with Geoffroy Jourdain. Since the 2009–2010 season, Equilbey has been an associate artist, with Accentus, of the Ensemble orchestral de Paris.
Equilbey invented the "e-tuner", an electronic means of tuning quarter tones and 1/3 tones. Outside of conventional classical music, she is a collaborator in the Private Domain project, which has included work with Émilie Simon, Murcof, Para One, and Marc Collin of Nouvelle Vague.
In 2008, Equilbey was made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour. In 2012, she founded the Insula Orchestra. One of their goals is to perform the neglected works by historic women composers, such as Louise Farrenc. In July 2021, Erato released their recording of Farrenc's Symphony nos. 1 and 3.

Irène Bordoni (16 January 1885 – 19 March 1953) was a Franco-American actress and singer.

Rose Laurens, previously billed as Rose Merryl (born Rose Podwojny; 4 March 1951 – 29 April 2018), was a French singer-songwriter, known for her 1982 single "Africa", a top-three hit in several European countries. She was also famous for portraying the character of Fantine, on the original 1980 French concept album of Les Misérables, singing "L'air de la misère" and "J'avais rêvé d'une autre vie" two songs later adapted into English as "On My Own" and "I Dreamed a Dream" respectively.

Raymond Souplex (1 June 1901 – 22 November 1972) was a French actor and singer. He was in a long-term relationship with Jane Sourza, although they never married.

Danyel Gérard (born Gérard Daniel Kherlakian; 7 March 1939) is a French pop singer and composer.

Yael Naim (Hebrew: יעל נעים, born 6 February 1978) is a French-born Israeli singer and actress. She rose to fame in 2008 in the US after her hit single "New Soul" was used by Apple in an advertising campaign for its MacBook Air. The song peaked at No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100. In 2013, the French government made her a knight of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

Ophélie Gaillard (born 13 June 1974) is a French cellist.

Laurent Korcia (born 1964) is a French violinist who studied at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris. After receiving a Premier Prix from the Conservatoire, he won the Paganini Competition in Genoa, a Grand Prix at the Jacques Thibaud Competition, the Premier Grand Prix at the international Zino Francescatti Competition and a scholarship from the Young Concert Artists Trust in London.
In 2002, he was awarded the Victoires de la Musique as instrumental soloist of the year in France and was made Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres. He also received the George Enesco Prize of the SACEM and the Grand Prix of the Academie Charles Cross.
Korcia performs regularly with conductors such as Semyon Bychkov, Charles Dutoit, Daniele Gatti, Valery Gergiev, Emmanuel Krivine, Kurt Masur, John Nelson, Michel Plasson, Manuel Rosenthal, Yutaka Sado, Tugan Sokhiev, Vladimir Spivakov, Yan-Pascal Tortelier, and Walter Weller. He includes solo violin recitals in his concert repertoire, with programmes ranging from Bach to contemporary music.
September 13 and 14, 2008 Korcia performed sold out concerts at Les Folies Bergère in the 9th arrondissement in Paris. The resulting television special is featured on American Public Television, including several top market stations. Korcia CDs (Sony/BMG, Naïve) are solid sellers in France. His music has been used in movies, commercials and television programs. He was signed to a worldwide contract by EMI in 2008 and his Cinema album was released in Europe in March 2009, followed by such diverse markets as South Korea, South Africa and Australia. The USA release was released 28 July 2009. The Canadian release date was also 7/28/09, through EMI. Mexico followed in early August.
Since 1999, Korcia has been playing on the Zahn Stradivarius (1719), a violin on loan by the French group LVMH, Moët-Hennessy-Louis Vuitton.