Acclaim and interviews, on air and in print:
Columbia College Today (alumni magazine) featured Louise in its Winter/Spring 2024 edition! https://www.college.columbia.edu/cct/issue/winterspring-2024/article/louise-dubin-%E2%80%9992
Louise was featured again on the January 9 2019 edition of Performance Today! https://www.yourclassical.org/programs/performance-today/episodes/2019/01/09
1/9/19, live performance in Salle Gaveau Paris of three Franchomme cello quartets, transcribed and completed by me from Franchomme's unpublished manuscripts. Louise Dubin, Raphael Pidoux, Philippe Muller, and Gauthier Brouton, cellists. @NPR syndicate stations, and streaming here: https://www.yourclassical.org/programs/performance-today. Complete playlist here.
The Dover Franchomme book with Louise Dubin's Introduction has just received this glowing review from Jonathan Wolff on Music Web International (England, March 2018).
The Dover book has also been nominated for the American Musicological Society's Palisca Award for 2018!
Featured in Le Violoncelle: Franchomme, Auguste. Selected Works for Cello and Piano. Edited and with Introduction by Louise Dubin (Dover Publications, 2017) headlines the recommended scores in Le Violoncelle's September 2017 issue! This is the newsletter published by the Association Française du Violoncelle (www.levioloncelle.com)
Live performance with Julia Bruskin of Franchomme’s Nocturne Op. 14, No. 1 featured on Fred Child’s Performance Today. The show was broadcast on MPR and affiliated stations nationwide on August 15th, 2017: complete playlist here. Hear it below:
Forthcoming: Interview at CLASSIQUENEWS.COM about the recent Dover publication and Franchomme in general
CD Review of The Franchomme Project, The Strad Magazine, April 2016, by Robin Stowell: "Dubin is an artist of refined taste and musicianship, unconcerned with display or self-projection...." "She shapes her moving, lyrical lines in Franchomme's nocturnes with innate musicality - and her sparring in op. 15 no.2 with co-cellist Sæunn Thorsteinsdóttir is delightful." You can download the full article here.
CD Review of The Franchomme Project, Strings Magazine, May 2016, by Cristina Schreil: "Dubin has conjured an informative listener’s journey into Franchomme, and the Project seems to sing with this celebration." "Franchomme’s four nocturnes for two cellos are notably mesmerizing and melancholic. In Op. 15. No. 1, performed by Dubin and Thorsteinsdóttir, gentle triplets layer under long, velvety bow strokes." "In Chopin’s Introduction et Polonaise Brillante...Dubin's performance unfolds with radiant energy." You can download the full article here.
Click here for photos of VioloncellenSeine Paris 2016!
CD Review of the Franchomme Project, La Folia, July 2016, by Grant Chu Cowell. "Cello ensembles can be rare (except as pedagogical teacher-student efforts), and it is wonderful to hear such gorgeous mellowness."
In the November 8, 2016 edition of American Public Media's nationally-syndicated radio program Performance Today, Fred Child said "...there's something of a Franchomme revival getting underway. A great deal of credit for that goes to American cellist Louise Dubin and her Franchomme Project."
Le Violoncelle, the publication of the The French Cello Association (www.levioloncelle.com), includes in its May 2016 issue the interview by Philippe Muller of Louise Dubin! You can read the interview in French here.
CD Review of the Franchomme Project, Musicologie.org, May 9, 2016, by Strapontin du Paradis: "These interpretations, airy, elegant and above all intimate, bring to light these elements concerning the friendships between the two musicians, cello technique, and the ambiance of the time. If the Caprices, Nocturnes and transcriptions are often calm and bel canto, interpreted with great beauty, virtuosity is not forgotten; throughout the Introduction and Polonaise Brillante, Louise Dubin gives vent to long expressive inspirations with the very virtuosic complicity of Hélène Jeanney...."
CD Review of the Franchomme Project, Classical Music Sentinel, April 2016, by Jean-Yves Duperron: "Along with his original compositions, some of the works on this CD are ...cello transcriptions by Franchomme of famous pieces by Chopin that come across extremely well. In fact I feel the four cello rendition of the Funeral March from the Piano Sonata No. 2 is more expressive this way, especially when played as well as it is here by cellists Louise Dubin, Katherine Cherbas, Saeunn Thorstein[s]dottir, and Julia Bruskin. Louise Dubin, who spearheaded this recording project, researched every aspect of this music and has put an enormous amount of care in this production. Her playing is always warmly expressive, with just the right measure of dramatic weight when called for.... For people who love cello music, this recording is certainly worth its weight in gold, and even more so for people who love to explore new musical territory."
CD review of The Franchomme Project, Music Web International (England) by Samuel Magill, March 2016: "It is a brilliant achievement in every aspect." "Dubin exhibits total mastery of her instrument -her intonation is well-nigh perfect and her tone is always lovely and warm. The other three cellists are equally fine. They are sympathetic collaborators, showing much sensitivity in their ensemble work and match perfectly Dubin’s sweet cello sound."
CD review of The Franchomme Project, ClassiqueNews.com (France), written by Philippe Alexandre Pham, December 29, 2015: "A constant innovation and great perfectionism all coming from the inner voice of the performers of this album (who are mostly Americans), in all points extremely convincing, given with an ardent, dramatic and sensual sensibility. In all, a superb revelation."
CD review of The Franchomme Project, Music Web International (England) by Jonathan Woolf, January 2016: "This disc restores Franchomme’s own compositions and arrangements to public hearing – in many cases in premiere recordings.... It’s played with spirit by Louise Dubin... Dubin has written the invaluable booklet notes and her performances are elegantly and subtly shaped. Her cellistic and pianistic colleagues offer fine support and they have been sensitively recorded. If the aim of this disc was to help start the reclamation of Franchomme then I’d say this is mission accomplished."
Ray White of KDFC @ClassicalKDFC chose The Franchomme Project as a “Favorite Recording of the Year for My Favorite Things Week, December 2015.”
“This week’s featured CD is a tribute to the long-neglected French virtuoso cellist and composer, Auguste Franchomme. Franchomme was a close friend and musical partner of Frederic Chopin, who transcribed a number of Chopin’s piano works for cello. Many of those transcriptions are included on this beautiful new disc, along with original works by Franchomme, performed by American cellist and Franchomme researcher, Louise Dubin.”
Naxos Records has selected The Franchomme Project album as a "Best of 2015 from Classical Independent Labels"! 12/29/2015
“This really is Louise Dubin’s project....The cellists and pianists playing this program are notable for their warmth of tone and love for what they are doing.”
Houston Public Radio: Dacia Clay's Classical Classroom features an in-depth interview re. The Franchomme Project: posted Dec 8th! http://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/arts-culture/2015/12/07/130145/classical-classroom-ep-111-the-franchomme-episode-with-louise-dubin/
Classical.net review by R. James Tobin of The Franchomme Project CD: "Franchomme's pieces are performed here in an appealingly warm manner [which] I find luscious….I can enthusiastically and strongly recommend this CD."
Julie Amacher's segment features The Franchomme Project on New Classical Tracks, broadcast on Minnesota Public Radio and syndicated by American Public Media. Album giveaways through November 24th!
The Franchomme Project is a CD of the Month for November on WCLV, Cleveland's classical music station! "Hector Berlioz called Franchomme 'the best cellist in the capital' but in the 21st century, it’s 'Auguste who?' Thank goodness Louise Dubin has come forward as his champion!"
Le Violoncelle, Revue No. 57, December 17, 2015. Magazine of Association Française du Violoncelle, Paris, France. Three page feature about The Franchomme Project album and research.
France Musique/Radio France recently featured The Franchomme Project album on October 14th, on a nationally broadcast show called "En Pistes!" The playlist can be found here. The announcer, Rodolphe Bruneau-Boulmier, calls it a "beau disque" (beautiful CD) and "on oublie que Franchomme est également un compositeur- voici un disque qui répare cette injustice." (we forget that Franchomme was also a composer- here's a CD that repairs this injustice):
The Franchomme Project was named CD of the week by San Francisco's KDFC-FM. Tracks were broadcast throughout the week of its US release (Sept. 7th) in the Bay Area (streaming @ KDFC.com)
“I really loved the Project’s CD. Fantastic music, top rate recording and Auguste’s story is so special. Thank you for the music.”
It was also featured and well-reviewed in MusicWeb International's September news.
It was a featured new release on Chicago’s Classical Radio Station WFMT, during the week of October 5th: https://web.archive.org/web/20151008022921/http://blogs.wfmt.com/newreleases/2015/10/04/the-franchomme-project/
Louise was interviewed on WKCR-FM New York City about The Franchomme Project (summary here). Here is a recording:
“Dubin plays with a robust, lush sound, yet blends impeccably with her co-artists...the audience loved it...Go to the September 27th performance and get the recording. Justice has been served to both Franchomme and Chopin.”
“I am purely delighted to see your generously gracious energy bringing to light these forgotten pieces with such inspirational simplicity which is touching and profoundly meaningful at so many levels.”
https://ericedberg.wordpress.com/2015/09/23/the-franchomme-project/
Le Projet Franchomme: Les informations de CD, en Français
Document containing reviews of The Franchomme Project
New Yorker on 9/22/11 Trinity Church Charlotte's Place recital
Review of BargeMusic recital in Brooklyn, NY in New York Concert Review
Review from the Charleston City Paper of solo debut with Charleston Symphony Orchestra
Review of the same performance in the Charleston Post and Courier
Review of Franchomme concert, September 29, 2011, by Harris Goldsmith
Review of Stefon Harris' album African Tarantella
Review of Stefon Harris' nonet performance.