Mélanie Bonis (1858 – 1937)
Mélanie Bonis was born in Paris. Her parents were not much interested in music, so she taught herself piano. She entered the Paris Conservatoire as a teenager at the time that Debussy was a student and she studied with César Frank.
Her early musical career was cut short by an 1883 marriage arranged by her parents to a man 22 years older, who already had five children, and who did not like music. In the 1890s she had an affair with a man she had met at the Paris Conservatoire, and who encouraged her to resume composing.
Melanie Bonis composed well into the 20th century, with a total of some 300 works including music for piano and organ, chamber music, and orchestral pieces. Most of her music was published under the name “M. Bonis” or “Mel Bonis” to disguise her sex. Even today people refer to her as Mel Bonis but in a more affectionate way.
Her 1906 composition Fantaisie en septour (Opus 72) is for 2 flutes, 2 violins, viola, cello, and piano, and is here performed by the Milan-based Le Cameriste Ambrosiane.