German pianist and composer Fanny Mendelssohn is the elder sister of composer Felix Mendelssohn.
Their parents settled in Berlin in 1811, and took an active part in the cultivated atmosphere of the intelligentsia, organizing concerts every Sunday for all the city's renowned artists. Both children had the same music teachers, and Fanny proved to be as gifted as her brother. Felix readily admits that his sister plays the piano better than he does. By the age of thirteen, she could play all the preludes in Book 1 of J.S. Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier from memory. However, her talent as a composer was not encouraged by her parents or even her brother.
It was not until 1829 that her husband, the Prussian court painter Wilhelm Hensel, encouraged her to perform his own works. During a trip to Italy in 1839-1840, the couple met Berlioz and Gounod, who were impressed by the young woman's talent as a performer and composer.
On her mother's death in 1842, Fanny took charge of the Mendelssohn family home in Berlin, a role that led her to organize local concerts and occasionally perform as a pianist, playing pieces by Bach, Beethoven and Felix Mendelssohn, as well as some of her own compositions.
Fanny Hensel-Mendelssohn's catalog numbers some 500 works, including almost 120 piano pieces, numerous Lieder, chamber music, cantatas and oratorios.
Six of her lieder were published under Felix's name in the two opuses 8 and 9 of the latter's Twelve Lieder, while she published only a few works under her own name, collections of short piano pieces, a handful of lieder and a piano trio. Most of her compositions are still in manuscript form.

Along his university studies (DEA in musicology, University of Paris IV-Sorbonne), Frédéric Cellier was awarded three first prizes and a development prize at the CNR of Nice and won first prize at the International Competition of Musical Execution - soloist category – of Stresa (Italy).
He is the laureate of the Fondation de France and the Yehudi Menuhin Foundation and accredited teacher at the CNR of Nice, the CNR of Marseille, and at the CRR Olivier Messiaen of Avignon (France).
Frédéric Cellier is the interpreter of Francis Poulenc’s Sonata for clarinet Bb and piano with Jean-Michel Damase, Jean Françaix or Gabriel Tacchino, but also performs his own version for clarinet, piano and string orchestra of George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in blue for Wynton Marsalis or under the baton of Adrian Gershwin, grandson of the composer.
Founder and artistic director of STRADIVARIUS Editions, he is the author of pieces of light music and a considerable number of arrangements in all styles and for all instruments acclaimed by numerous personalities in the music world:

"Frédéric Cellier has produced a number of adaptations of Georges Auric's works with such talent and precision that I consider them a natural addition to his chamber music catalogue."
Michèle AURIC - Georges Auric's widow

"To Frédéric Cellier, excellent musician and tireless arranger."
Jean FRANÇAIX - Composer and pianist

"Arranging a musical work is always a delicate and risky exercise, because it requires both modifying it so that it can be played by the desired instruments and preserving its very essence. But that is exactly what Frédéric Cellier has done, preserving the nuances, subtleties and soul of the original works while breathing new life into them.
His arrangements give all the musicians the chance to perform these compositions specially revisited for their instrument, and make music lovers rediscover them in a new light."
Adrian GERSHWIN - George Gershwin’s grandson

"Congratulations for your beautiful new orchestration and rendition of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in blue."
Wynton MARSALIS - Trumpet player, composer, bandleader, general and artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, New York

"It is outstanding that Frédéric Cellier has managed to transpose Saxophone Marmalade from the saxophone to the clarinet. I thank him for it and wish its great and deserved success. "
Manuel ROSENTHAL - Conductor, composer and Maurice Ravel’s pupil

"I am very happy to tell you how much I appreciated your transcription of the Capriccio, based on Francis Poulenc's Le Bal Masqué. It perfectly reflects the spirit and verve of the score for two pianos that I had the opportunity to play and record with Jacques Février, and it was a great pleasure for me to premiere it in Montpellier."
Gabriel TACCHINO - Pianist, Francis Poulenc’s specialist

"I must tell you that I really like your transcriptions and that I think the tone of the instruments you have chosen suits perfectly our beloved composer."
Ornella VOLTA - Musicologist, president of the Erik Satie’s Foundation