Cécile Corbel
Breton harpist and composer for Studio Ghibli.
Cécile Corbel is a French and Breton singer, harpist, and composer born on 28 March 1980. She has released five albums of original music and is known for composing the score for Studio Ghibli's 2010 film Arrietty, becoming the first non-Japanese composer to work with the studio. She sings in multiple languages including French, Italian, Breton, and English.
Quick Facts
- Born
- 28 March 1980
- Birthplace
- Pont-Croix, Finistère, France
- Occupation
- Singer-songwriter, harpist
- Instrument
- Vocals, celtic harp
- Genre
- Celtic, world
- Years active
- 2002–present
- Label
- Keltia Musique, Polydor
Facts from the source article.
Early life and education
Cécile Corbel came into the world on March 28, 1980, in Pont-Croix. Her childhood was spent roaming Brittany with her parents, who ran a traveling puppet show. She started on guitar, but her teenage discovery of the Celtic harp came after hearing Greek harpist Elisa Vellia, who would later instruct her. At eighteen, having completed a baccalauréat scientifique, she relocated to Paris. There she attended the École du Louvre, earning a master’s in archaeology, while playing in pubs and on the streets. Her first official performance took place at the pub Ti Jos in 2002.
Career
In 2005, Corbel put out an EP called Harpe celtique et chants du monde, which had six songs. She then signed with Keltia Musique, and her first full-length album, SongBook 1, arrived in 2006. That record included tunes from Brittany, Wales, and Ireland. After that, she hit the road. She played in Australia at a French festival put on by the Alliance française of Adelaide. She also opened for Laurent Voulzy at Olympia Hall in Paris, and performed alongside acts like Altan, Lúnasa, Alan Stivell, Carlos Núñez Muñoz, Dan Ar Braz, Hélène Flaherty, Ousmane Touré, and Ariana Savall. Her travels took her to Germany, Switzerland, Italy, England, Estonia, the Czech Republic, Poland, the Netherlands, the United States, Paraguay, and Burma. In 2008, SongBook vol. 2 came out, and Corbel wrote the first ten of its twelve songs. The next year, she took on the role of Anne of Brittany in the rock opera Anne de Bretagne. Songwriter Alan Simon picked her after struggling to find someone for the part. The show, which involved more than 200 musicians, was staged at the end of June 2009 at the Château des ducs de Bretagne in Nantes, and an album came out before it. Once promotion for SongBook vol. 2 wrapped up, Corbel had leftover promo CDs, so she mailed them to people she admired. One went to Studio Ghibli, since she had been a longtime fan of their movies. At that point, Arrietty was in pre-production, and producer Toshio Suzuki wanted a Celtic-style score. Within ten days, Suzuki noticed the handwritten envelope, listened to the CD, and was taken by Corbel's voice and harp playing. He shared it with the film's director and Yamaha Music. That led to Corbel writing the title song, then more songs, and by 2009 she was composing the entire score. It was the first time a non-Japanese composer had worked with Studio Ghibli.
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