Renée Chemet (9 January 1887 – 2 January 1977) was a French violinist.
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.E. Windust, "Renee Chemet-Decreus" The Strad (July 1909): 130-131.
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. In 1907, she toured North America as a violinist with her husband, pianist Camille Decreus, in the company of Emma Calvé."The Calve Concert Sale" Town Talk (30 November 1907): 23."Program for Calve Concert" The Leavenworth Times (2 November 1907): 8. via Newspapers.com "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.""Music in Hamburg" The Strad (December 1911): 295.
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."Celebrated Violinist is in America" Carry On (February 1926): 6.
After the war, Chemet was a soloist in Liverpool, Birmingham, Nottingham, Bradford, Cardiff, Edinburgh, and Glasgow in 1920."Music in the Provinces" The Musical Times (1 March 1920): 196-208. In the latter half of 1920, Chemet gave a number of joint recitals with the Russian tenor Vladimir Rosing."Mme. Chemet's Violin Playing." London Times, 16 Jul 1920. In New York, she played at Carnegie Hall in 1921, at Aeolian Hall in 1923,Richard Aldrich, "Renee Chemet's Recital" New York Times (23 November 1923): 21. Town Hall in 1927,"Violin Recital by Chemet" New York Times (6 December 1927): 25. and at the Metropolitan Opera House in 1925 and 1928."Renee Chemet in Concert" New York Times (14 December 1925): 19. "Renee Chemet in Opera Concert" New York Times (24 December 1928): 18. Throughout the 1920s, she made many recordings,Renée Chemet, Discography of American Historical Recordings."Three Celebrated Pianists and Famous Violinist Added to Roster of Chickering Artists' Department" Music Trades (29 December 1923): 16. 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.""An Artist Reveals a Love for Radio" New York Times (9 March, 19300: 155. She played Maud Powell's violin"Noted Baritone and Violinist to Broadcast on Thursday" New York Times (8 February 1925): XX15. on the radio in New York in 1925.Peter Tschmuck, Creativity and Innovation in the Music Industry (Springer Science and Business Media 2006): 55. "The Microphone will Present" New York Times (20 April 1930): 116.
Chemet traveled through Hawaii to Japan in 1932, to perform with pianist Anca Seidlova and koto player Michio Miyagi."Madame Chemet is Planning Concert Here This Summer" Honolulu Star-Bulletin (29 March 1932): 38. via Newspapers.comMiyagi Michio, International Shakuhachi Society.Ena Kajino, "A Lost Opportunity for Tradition: The Violin in Early Twentieth-Century Japanese Traditional Music" Nineteenth-Century Music Review 10(2)(December 2013): 293-321. Later that year, she performed with the BBC Orchestra.G. A. H., "An Orchestra Concert" The Guardian (7 November 1932): 10. via Newspapers.com
Personal life Chemet married fellow French musician Camille Decreus in 1906."Music in Paris" Musical Courier (5 June 1907): 11. He died in 1939. She died in 1977, at age 89, in Paris.
References
External links
A 1909 portrait of Chemet with her violin, in the J. Willis Sayre Collection of Theatrical Photographs, University of Washington Libraries. A Renée Chemet recital program (1929), from an appearance at McMurry College in Abilene, Texas, in The Portal to Texas History. Emily Liz, "Great female violinists of the past" Violinist.com (27 December 2010). A blog post including Chemet.