Célia Oneto Bensaid

For some years now, the press has been following the development of this ‘committed pianist with golden fingers and impeccable technique’ (LexNews), whose ‘sensitivity is matched only by her mastery’ (Télérama) and who, according to Les Echos, embodies ‘the free electron of the next generation of French pianists’.

A sincere and committed artist, Célia Oneto Bensaid has fashioned a career in her own image, highlighting a particular repertoire, the signature of this pianist who develops her own singularity and likes to get off the beaten track.

After graduating from the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris with five prizes and top honours, she went on to study at the École Normale de Musique de Paris, where she was awarded the Diplôme Supérieur de Concertiste. At the same time, she benefited from the guidance of Claire Désert, Brigitte Engerer, Maria João Pires, Jean-Claude Pennetier and Rena Shereshevskaya, all of whom were particularly inspiring and enriching.

Today, she performs on the world's greatest stages, choosing her repertoire with care: American music (including her own transcriptions), French music, contemporary music and music by female composers all feature prominently in her programmes, and she has premiered numerous works by Kaija Saariaho, Diana Syrse, Camille Pépin and Fabien Waksman.

A Yamaha artist, supported by the Fondation Banque Populaire and the Fondation Safran, Célia is the winner of numerous international solo and chamber music competitions (Piano Campus, Fondation Cziffra, Nadia and Lili Boulanger Competition, Pro Musicis, HSBC Prize of the Aix-en-Provence Lyric Festival...); she also received the Public Prize of the Société des Arts de Genève in 2017, and in 2020 will become the first winner in the ‘Classical Music’ category of the Trophée K2.

Recently, she accompanied the Avignon-Provence orchestra conducted by Debora Waldman, the Bretagne orchestra conducted by Aurélien Azan Zielinski or Anna Duczmal-Mróz, the Garde Républicaine orchestra conducted by François Boulanger, and the Toulon Opera orchestra conducted by Lucie Leguay in concertos from the ‘great repertoire’ (Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Franck, Liszt.... ), as well as concertos by Vítězslava Kaprálová and Marie Jaëll. In recital and chamber music, she has performed at the Philharmonie de Paris, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Piano aux Jacobins, La Roque d'Anthéron, l'Esprit du Piano in Bordeaux, La Folle Journée in Nantes, the Grand Théâtre de Harbin (China), Salamanca Hall (Japan), Salle Bourgie (Montreal) and London's Wigmore Hall.

A sought-after chamber musician, she has performed alongside Renaud Capuçon, Elsa Dreisig, Marie-Laure Garnier, Olivia Gay, the Hanson Quartet, Léa Hennino, Héloïse Luzzati, Raphaëlle Moreau and Alexandre Pascal.
Her discography, which includes a dozen award-winning recordings, illustrates her favourite repertoires: after the album ‘American Touches’, featuring works by Bernstein and Gershwin, came ‘Metamorphosis’, featuring works by Glass, Pépin and Ravel, ‘Songs of Hope’ with the soprano Marie-Laure Garnier, and a disc devoted to Marie Jaëll's Pièces de Dante (on the Présence Compositrices label). In chamber music, she records with the Hanson Quartet (Brecords), Raphaëlle Moreau (Mirare), Olivia Gay (Fuga Libera), and plays an active part in the projects of La Boîte à Pépites (Sohy, Strohl, Leleu...).

Artiste An eclectic artist, she is also an actress in the MAB Collectif's projects (shows ‘Cendrillon, avec ma soeur’ and ‘Comment je suis devenue Olivia’), is a hand double in feature films and as a pianist she appears in the series ‘Les Sauvages’ and ‘Validé’ (Canal Plus). She also recorded the soundtracks for various films, documentaries and series (‘Les Sauvages’ Canal Plus, ‘Rouge’ by Farid Bentoumi, ‘Le Tourbillon de la vie’ by Olivier Treiner, ‘Sous la Seine’ by Xavier Gens etc.).

After being artist-in-residence at the Opéra Grand-Avignon for the 22/23 and 23/24 seasons, she is releasing her latest solo CD ‘Sparklight’ (NoMadMusic) in concerto form (Liszt No.1 and Jaëll No.1) with the Orcheste National Avignon-Provence in 2024, which was featured in Le Figaro, Le Monde and on France Inter.

She now teaches at the Conservatoire du 18ème arrondissement in Paris and is a regular guest on France Musique's La Tribune Des Critiques.