Madeleine Forte

Madeleine (Hsu) Forte (born 20 September 1938) is a Franco-American pianist, recording artist, and Professor Emerita of Piano at the Morrison Center for the Performing Arts at Boise State University.

Early life and education Madeleine Forte began her career at a Beethoven festival in Vichy, France. She first studied piano with her aunt, then with master pianists Alfred Cortot and Wilhelm Kempff. She has won prizes in international competitions (Viotti, Italy; Maria Canals, Spain; Guanabara, Brazil). She holds a Musicology Diploma from the École Normale de Musique de Paris in the class of Norbert Dufourcq, Artist Diplomas from the Ecole Normale and the Warsaw Conservatory in the class of Zbigniew Drzewiecki, and bachelor's and master's degrees from The Juilliard School, where she studied with Rosina Lhévinne and Martin Canin. In 1970, she received the "Josef Lhevinne Memorial Award" in New York that granted a full scholarship to complete her master's at Juilliard. She became a United States immigrant and an American Citizen in January 1976. In 1996 she was a Yale University Visiting Hendon Fellow. In 1984, she received the Ph.D. degree from New York University with a dissertation on the music of Olivier Messiaen. She is a recipient of the Master Teacher Certificate, Music Teachers National Association. The Madeleine Hsu Forte Piano scholarship is offered on a yearly basis to a gifted piano student at Boise State University.

Recording and performing Madeleine Forte has appeared as a recording artist on Radiodiffusion-television française in Paris, on Radio Warsaw, on Television O Globo, Rio-de-Janeiro, Radio Television Buenos Aires, and NBC Television, New York. Her compact disc recordings of the music of Albéniz, Arensky, Barber, Bartók, Beethoven, Bizet, Busoni Chabrier, Chopin, Debussy, Falla, Glière, Khachaturian, Liszt, Manuel Infante, Messiaen, Poulenc, Rachmaninoff, Ravel, and Saint-Saëns are distributed worldwide. She has presented solo recitals and has performed as a soloist with orchestras in France, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Belgium, Poland, Estonia, Hungary, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Austria, England, Norway, the United States, Canada, China, Japan, and South Korea. She is a founding member of The Bel-Être Ensemble and the Lillibridge Ensemble.

Personal life Forte is the widow of Allen Forte, American music theorist and musicologist. She has two sons Yann and Olen, and two grandchildren, Olivier Guillaume and Elodie Marie.

Discography Year of issueAlbum detailsRecord label 1998 Maurice Ravel Sonatine / Miroirs / Pavane / Gaspard De La Nuit Connoisseur Society 1999 Frédéric Chopin Polonaise-Fantaisie / Sonata in B minor / Four Scherzi Connoisseur Society 2001 Madeleine Forte Plays Messiaen Roméo Records 2001 Claude Debussy, Images / Pour Le Piano / L'isle Joyeuse Connoisseur Society 2002 Chopin Played by Madeleine Forte Roméo Records 2003 Barber, Bartók, Liszt, Beethoven: Piano Works Performed Live by Madeleine Forte Roméo Records 2005 The Skula/Forte Duo, Live at Whitney Center, with Mariusz Skula, cello Self-released 2006 A Celebration of Duo-Piano Music, with Del Parkinson Roméo Records 2022 Madeleine Forte and István Nádas, Duo Pianists Historic Live Performance 1980 Works by Debussy, Mozart, Schubert, J.S. Bach Roméo Records 2022 Madeleine Forte & Del Parkinson Duo Pianists, Live 1993 Works by Leo Weiner, Béla Bartók, Franz Liszt Roméo Records