Claire-Marie Le Guay

Claire-Marie Le Guay, a portrait by Agnès Bouquet

Claire-Marie Le Guay leads a double life. Sacred, Profane. Her profane life is her life as a woman, a mother, and a Parisian who visits museums with her three children, strolls through her neighborhood, Nouvelle Athènes, where she encounters her cherished ghosts—Chopin, Liszt, Berlioz, Nadia Boulanger—and her living counterparts, such as composer Pascal Dusapin, grateful to live in a neighborhood rich in culture, both past and present… Her sacred life is her life as a pianist—her fifty concerts a year, her festival appearances, her twenty or so recordings, her teaching at the Paris Conservatory (CNSMDP), her moments of absence—“an artist is always absent even when present”—and her moments of elevation and transcendence when she reunites with the one who has always shared her life: her piano.

A deep, intimate connection that began at the age of 4 and was cemented at 14 with her admission to the Paris Conservatory, followed by a remarkable debut as a concert pianist at 15! Her professional life, artistic life, a sacred life crowned with success: she has won numerous competitions and the Victoires de la Musique awards, and has worked with the greatest artists, including conductors Daniel Barenboim and Louis Langrée, as well as composer Thierry Escaich, and her longtime chamber music partners—cellist François Salque, the Modigliani Quartet, and flutist Magali Mosnier.

While music came into his life like a calling, writing had always been there, lying in wait, and it took a meeting with a publisher for his first book, *La vie est plus belle en musique* (Flammarion 2015), to come to fruition, followed by a second, *C’est la nuit qu’il est beau de croire à la lumière* ” (Flammarion 2021), and finally a third: “May Joy Remain” (Albin Michel 2026), born from his encounter with Erik Orsenna during a tribute program to Bernard Pivot.

Thus was born this collaborative book that pays homage to Bach and takes the form of a cross-dialogue intended for the reader. He warns: “Once Bach has entered you, he will never leave you.”

“In art, what matters is the Encounter; it is not the same for everyone, and the moment when this Encounter is possible is always mysterious,” explains Claire-Marie, who says that to love (classical) music, one must first accept the possibility that one might not love it! Classical music can be intimidating—she knows this—and that is undoubtedly why this guide pours so much delicate energy into leading us into her valley.

This valley of notes that infuses her life, this valley of notes that carries her and transports us. Claire-Marie Le Guay is a woman who is both down-to-earth (she recharges her batteries in the sea mist) and ethereal (a dusting of gold shimmers around her face), moving between two worlds and tracing a radiantly luminous path. Much to our delight.