GOUVY, LOUIS THÉODORE (1819–1898)

Emile Naoumoff has enjoyed a long and successful career as a performer, composer and teacher. At the age of seven, he became the last disciple of Nadia Boulanger, who referred to him as “The gift of my old age”, and studied with her until her death in 1979, also working with Igor Markevitch, Nikita Magaloff, Jean Françaix, Leonard Bernstein, Soulima Stravinsky, Aram Khachaturian and Yehudi Menhuin. He serves as a professor at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.

Yau Cheng earned both her Master and Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance from Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, under the tutelage of Emile Naoumoff, and was a pupil of Nancy Loo and Mimi Li in Hong Kong. She enjoys an active career as an accompanist, répétiteur and collaborative pianist for opera venues, companies and individual musicians.

www.yaucheng.com

Gouvy began piano lessons with a private tutor at the age of eight, and was educated in France—Sarreguemines, then Metz—developing a keen interest in Classical Greek culture and in modern languages—not only German, which he spoke fluently, but English and Italian as well. In 1837 he went to Paris to study law, continuing his piano lessons with a pupil of the pianist and composer Henri Herz (1803–1888). Two years later, he made up his mind to abandon any thoughts of a career in the law and to devote himself to music. He stood out in French musical life as a composer of orchestral and chamber music.