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The French-born pianist, Louise Billaud, was trained in the USA and France, studied under the guidance of her future husband, French-born American pianist and Steinway Artist, professor Jean-Paul Billaud. Through him she felt the influence of his former teachers: French Masters Marguerite Long, Jacques Février, Alfred Cortot, and Polish pianist Auguste de Radwan who had studied in Vienna with the famed Theodor Leschetizky. Along with academic degrees awarded with highest honors, she was laureate of several piano competitions. She took first prize in the Maxim Shapiro Memorial Piano Competition, second in the International Piano Recording Competition, first prize in the Bartók-Kabalevsky International Piano Competition and was semi-finalist in the International Web Concert Hall Competition. She was also honored with the Award for Exemplary Performance from Radford University.
Louise Billaud has performed in the USA and Europe in solo and lecture-recitals, chamber music, as soloist with orchestra and as featured artist in several music festivals in France. Having a special interest in diabetes research, she has taken recital programs on tour for the benefit of the American Diabetes Association.
Currently residing in Southwest Virginia, Louise Billaud is on the faculty of New River Community College as Associate Professor and teaches Music History and Music Appreciation. Additionally, some of her piano students have distinguished themselves in national competitions in the USA and in the People's Republic of China.
Her recordings include compact discs: "Louise Billaud" - a recital of works by J.S. Bach, L.v. Beethoven, Samuel Barber, Holliday, Sergei Rachmaninov and Liapunov; “From Bartók to the Popol Vuh” - featuring piano music by 20th century composers Béla Bartók, Dmitry Kabalevsky, Petrassi and Holliday; “Passion” - released in 2004 with works by J.S. Bach, Franck, Wagner-Liszt and Franz Liszt.
In 2005, Louise Billaud gave the première performance of the four-movement Sonata for Piano by American composer Kent Holliday written for and dedicated to her (see Music Reviews). In addition, her successful lecture-recital entitled Mazeppa – An Inspirational Living Legend has been released and distributed in DVD format. She presented a lecture-recital featuring the award-winning Incantations from the Popol Vuh by Kent Holliday at the 2009 International Conference of the College Music Society in Zagreb, Croatia where it was enthusiastically received.
A 2011 Virginia Outstanding Faculty Award nominee, Louise Billaud was a featured guest for the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities NPR radio program “With Good Reason” hosted by Sarah McConnell. Most recently she presented research findings at the Music and Lifelong Learning Conference 2012 for an international audience representing the Adult & Community Music Education Special Research Interest Group. Louise Billaud is a doctoral candidate at Boston University. |
