Marcelle Soulage
Born: 12 December 1894, Lima, Peru
Died: 17 December, 1970, Paris, France
Photo credit: Musée SACEM
BIOGRAPHY MUSIC SOURCES
Marcelle Soulage, who sometimes published under the name, Marc Sauval, was born in South America to French parents in Lima, Peru. The family moved back to Paris when Soulage was four and a half years old. Her musical studies began on the piano at age five and continued at the Paris Conservatory with Georges Caussade, Paul Vidal, Vincent D’Indy, and Nadia Boulanger. In 1919 and 1920, Soulage, one of three female students studying with both Boulanger and Vidal, entered the Prix de Rome competition but was unsuccessful. She remained in an exclusive group of young female composers, les fidèles, who were close to Nadia Boulanger, and was one of two students who assisted Boulanger in correcting the proofs of the cantata Faust et Hélène by Boulanger’s sister and composer, Lili Boulanger.
Soulage was awarded two prizes; the Prix Lépaulle, in 1918, for a suite for strings and piano, and the Prix des Amis de la Musique, for her Cello Sonata, in 1920. Later, Soulage taught solfege at the Paris Conservatory from 1949-1965, having first served as a Professor of Piano and Harmony at the Conservatoire d'Orléans from 1921-1925.
Soulage was a prolific composer who wrote orchestral, choral, chamber music, songs, and keyboard works, as well as solfege books. She spent her entire life in Paris. Soulage's music is published by Evette & Schaeffer, Buffet-Crampon, Max Eschig, Rouart, Lerolle & Cie, and L. Philippo.