About
Trained at Rouen Conservatory (CRR- France) and later at Geneva University of Music (HEM – Switzerland), where she earned a Bachelor’s degree, a Master’s in Performance and a Master’s in Music Pedagogy, French artist Coraline Parmentier has been developing since 2015 a world oriented artistic approach through her concert series A suspended hour. Originally dedicated to Latin American and Spanish classical repertoires, the series gradually expanded to include countries from all over the world, embracing classical, traditional and world-music aesthetics and becoming the guiding thread of her work with global cultures.
After a formative youth trip to Morocco in 2008, her interest in historical ties between Andalusia and Arab traditions led her, seven years later, to explore Middle Eastern and North African aesthetics through her piano transcriptions, created exclusively on a Western acoustic instrument.
In 2016, she travelled to Lebanon within the framework of the Valence–Batroun twinning, serving as artistic spokesperson for the lebanese diaspora Val’Liban until 2019, deepening her understanding of the social and identity-building role of music in Arab communities.
In 2017 and 2018, she also acted as artistic spokesperson for Brazil for the Brazilian Cultural Centers of Paris and Geneva, performing numerous concerts in France and Switzerland dedicated to the works of Heitor Villa-Lobos.
In 2018, she was invited to Canada for Montréal Peace Week, where she gave a series of concert conferences focused on intercultural dialogue and music as a vehicle for mutual understanding.
From 2019 onward, Coraline joined the Geneva-based Mediterranean Ensemble Diwan, directed by Francis Biggi, as principal pianist and also as assistant in composition. With this ensemble, she performed at Samos Summer Acadmy in Greece with Athens University of Music, as well as major Geneva venues such as Villa-Lobos Concert Room, Victoria Hall and the Ella Fitzgerald Stage, notably through the Shawati project in partnership with Bedouin Burger and Ensemble Vide.
Between 2021 and 2023, she carried out research trips in the forgotten archives of Madrid, Brussels and Montréal, alongside remote work with Paris National Library. There she unearthed rare and never-recorded-before manuscripts by women composers, which now inform her feminist-oriented projects. With what she collected, Coraline has been developing Women of Legend, a new concert series. Within this framework, she created the sub-program World Wide Women, dedicated to female voices from diverse cultures after 1920.
These projects are presented in Switzerland and France in collaboration with Soroptimist International, Association of University Women (Geneva section and National Swiss section) and the CWF – Career Women Forum of Geneva.
This artistic path leads to her diptych Feminae, devoted to French-speaking women. The first volume will be released in June 2026, featuring original compositions dedicated to twentieth-century activists and engaged figures.
The second volume will be released in October 2026, dedicated to forgotten and unpublished French-speaking women composers.
In 2024, acquiring a Turkish keyboard marked a turning point, allowing her to integrate traditional timbres and microtonal modes into her creations.
In 2025, she released her Eastern Diptych, comprising Kitab al-Kanuz (February 2025) and Aswât Bahr al-Mayyit (December 2025), two albums dedicated to the Arab aesthetics of the Mediterranean, the Nile and the Dead Sea.
In September 2025, she was invited to Italy for the project Julius Eastman Heritage – Without Blood There Is No Cause, devoted to the minimalist and militant works for four pianos by Afro American queer composer Julius Eastman (1940-1990), presented at the MITO Festival (Milan and Turin), the Sagra Malatestiana Festival of Rimini and the Aperto Festival of Reggio Emilia.
The Piano Mondo students inaugurated their series Les Petits Créateurs (The Little Creators) in 2025 with their first album of original works. In June 2026, the series will expand into a collaboration with the Idylle Montessori School for the album En voyage avec Montessori (Let’s Go with Montessori), celebrating the school’s 30th anniversary. The December 2026 album will offer an original musical interpretation of The Little Prince.
Awards
- Social Engagement Prize – Ethics & Values Foundation, Geneva (2016)
- Public Peace Award for Understanding Between Peoples – Pax Christi Montréal, Canada (2017)
- Baume & Mercier University Prize – Geneva, University of Music (2019)
- Leenaards Cultural Grant – Lausanne (2021)
- Engelberts Cultural Grant – Mies (2024)
- Annual AGFDU Grant – Association of Graduated Women, Geneva (2025)
Nominations
- Africa Francophonia 35–35 Prize – Abidjan, Ivory Coast (2017)
- Geneva Youth Prize (2018)
- Film Sync Awards – Bridge Audio (2025), for her Arab piece “Fadwa & Al-Bahr”
Coraline Parmentier’s goal is to develop each year a new discographic diptych, each cycle focused on a different cultural, historical or artistic theme.
