Célia
Oneto
Bensaid

Bio (.pdf) and HD photos Presskit (.pdf)
The press has been following for several years the rise of this committed pianist with golden fingers and flawless technique (LexNews), whose sensitivity matches her mastery (Télérama), and who embodies the free spirit of the new generation of French pianists, according to Les Échos.
Célia Oneto Bensaid
The press has been following for several years the rise of this committed pianist with golden fingers and flawless technique (LexNews), whose sensitivity matches her mastery (Télérama), and who embodies the free spirit of the new generation of French pianists, according to Les Échos.
A sincere and committed artist, Célia Oneto Bensaid is shaping a career in her own image, highlighting a unique repertoire that defines the signature of this pianist, who develops her singularity and willingly ventures off the beaten path.

Graduating from the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris with five first prizes awarded with the highest distinctions, she then joined the École Normale de Musique de Paris, where she received the Diplôme Supérieur de Concertiste, while benefiting from the guidance of Claire Désert, Brigitte Engerer, Maria João Pires, Jean-Claude Pennetier and Rena Shereshevskaya, who particularly inspired and enriched her.

Today, it is on the most prestigious stages that she carefully chooses the repertoires she champions: American music (including her own transcriptions), French music, contemporary works, and music by women composers play a major role in her programs. She has notably premiered numerous pieces 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 a laureate of numerous inter- national competitions both in solo and chamber music (Piano Campus, Fondation Cziffra, Concours Nadia et Lili Boulanger, Pro Musicis, HSBC Prize of the Aix-en-Provence Lyric Festival, etc.); in 2017, she also received the Audience Award from the Société des Arts in Geneva, and in 2020 became the first winner in the “Classical Music” category of the Trophée K2.

Recently, she has performed with the Avignon-Provence Orchestra under the baton of Debora Waldman, the Brittany Orchestra with Aurélien Azan Zielinski and Anna Duczmal-Mróz, the Garde Républicaine conducted by François Boulanger, and the Opéra de Toulon Orchestra under Lucie Leguay, in concertos from the “great repertoire” (Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Franck, Liszt…) as well as in concertos by Vítězslava Kaprálová and Marie Jaëll. In recital and chamber music, she has been heard at the Philharmonie de Paris, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Piano aux Jacobins, La Roque d’Anthéron, L’Esprit du Piano in Bordeaux, La Folle Journée in Nantes, the Grand Theatre in Harbin (China), the Salamanca Hall (Japan), Salle Bourgie (Montreal), and Wigmore Hall in London.

A sought-after chamber musician, she performs 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 around ten recordings and has received numerous awards, reflects her favorite repertoires: following the album American Touches centered on Bernstein and Gershwin came Metamorphosis featuring works by Glass, Pépin, and Ravel; Songs of Hope with soprano Marie-Laure Gar- nier; and a recording dedicated to Pièces de Dante by Marie Jaëll (Présence Compositrices label). In chamber music, she records with the Hanson Quartet (B Records), Raphaëlle Moreau (Mirare), Olivia Gay (Fuga Libera), and actively contributes to the projects of La Boîte à Pépites (Sohy, Strohl, Leleu…).

An eclectic artist, she is also an actress in the MAB Collec- tif’s projects (Cendrillon, avec ma sœur and Comment je suis devenue Olivia), serves as a hand double in feature films, and appears as a pianist in the series Les Sauvages and Validé (Canal Plus). She also records original soundtracks for various films, documentaries, and series (Les Sauvages on 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 during the 2022–2023 and 2023–2024 seasons, she released her latest solo CD Sparklight (NoMadMu- sic) in 2024, featuring concertos (Liszt No. 1 and Jaëll No. 1) with the Orchestre National Avignon-Provence, which was notably featured in Le Figaro, Le Monde, and on France Inter.

Holder of the French teaching diploma (C.A.), she now teaches at the Conservatoire of the 18th arrondissement in Paris and is regularly invited to join the round table on La Tribune des Cri- tiques on France Musique.