Marylène Dosse

Biography

Marylene Dosse was born in Domfront in Normandy, France - the only place in which her mother could find a hospital which had not been taken over by the invading German armed forces.

She entered the Paris Conservatoire where she studied initially under Jean Batalla and took supplementary lessons in piano and chamber music with Jacques Février. Later she studied with Jeanne-Marie Darré, who took over Batalla's advanced piano class. In 1960 she won first prize at the Conservatoire. After winning prizes in competitions in Salzburg and Naples, she began on an extensive concert career. She also participated in master classes given by Alfred Brendel, Jörg Demus and Paul Badura-Skoda. When Badura-Skoda was offered a position as artist-in-residence at the University of Wisconsin, he invited her to come as his assistant. She subsequently became artist-in-residence for a group of seven campuses of the University of Wisconsin, and married William R Peters, one of the deans of the university. She became a US citizen.

Repertoire and recordings

She was approached by George de Mendelssohn, the president of Vox Records, and began an extensive series of recordings of French and Spanish piano works, including the complete solo piano works of Granados, which was Critics' Choice of the month in High Fidelity magazine, and Saint-Saëns as well as numerous neglected works for piano and orchestra.

She is the pianist of the Castalia Trio, together with violinist James Lyon and cellist Kim Cook. She also appears in violin and piano duo recitals with the violinist Marianne Behrendt.

Reviewing a 1979 recital, Nancy Malitz, the music critic of the Cincinnati Enquirer described Dosse as "an outstanding musician with a structural and rhythmic grasp of music that one finds in the finest conductors. Dosse is also a superb pianist with technical and tonal resources to spare."

Academic career

Dosse has been a guest faculty member of Indiana University-Bloomington and artist-in-residence at the University of Wisconsin. In 1986 she was appointed a distinguished Professor at the Pennsylvania State University. In 1992 she was the only woman elected to the Institute of the Arts and Humanistic Studies, and in 1999 the university awarded her the Faculty Medal for Outstanding achievement in the Arts and Humanities. She is now a professor emerita residing in Albuquerque, New Mexico. /

Recordings

Piano duo recordings

Chamber music