Sophie-Véronique Cauchefer-Choplin - NOSPR

Sophie-Véronique CAUCHEFER-CHOPLIN was born in Nogent-le-Rotrou, France. She grew up in a musician family where she received piano instruction as a small child. After completing piano, organ (Gérard Letellier) and harmony courses at the Ecole Nationale de Musique of Le Mans, she entered the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique of Paris where she studied the organ with Rolande Falcinelli. She was awarded the first prizes in organ, improvisation, harmony, fugue and counterpoint (in the classes of Jean Lemaire, Michel Merlet and Jean-Claude Henry). Her academic success was rewarded in 1980 with a prize from the French Ministry of Culture. In 1990, she became the first woman to win the second prize in improvisation at the Chartres International Organ Improvisation Competition.

Emeritus organist of the Great Organ of Saint Jean-Baptiste de la Salle in Paris (1983 - 2013), she has been the organist of the Great Organ of Saint Sulpice in Paris since 1985 and was appointed titular organist in February 2023. She shares this position with Karol Mossakowski. She is the first woman to hold this title at one of the three largest organ tribunes in Paris.

Sophie-Véronique has an extensive international career, having given recitals worldwide in more than 35 countries. Considered by her peers as one of the best improvisers of her generation, she also performs in « organ and narrator » concerts, notably with Pierre Arditi, Pauline Choplin, Pierre-Marie Escourrou, Didier Flamand, Brigitte Fossey, François-Eric Gendron, Michael Lonsdale, Marcel Maréchal, and Guillaume Marquet. In 2019, she also performed with foreign actors in Germany and Finland.

Her sensitivity to improvisation has led her to give Master Classes both in France and abroad, such as at the AGO National Convention in 2006 and 2012, and to lead academies (London, Biarritz, Kevlar, Stockholm, Schwäbisch Gmünd, USA, Trieste, etc.). She is also regularly invited to serve on juries for national and international competitions (AGO Chicago 2006, Chartres International Competition 2008, Karl Nielsen Competition in Odense 2011, AGO Nashville 2012, Longwood Gardens 2013, Miami 2014, Québec 2014, Dublin 2014, Chartres 2016, Odense 2017, Saint Albans 2017, Schwäbisch Gmünd 2019 and 2022, Vilnius 2023, etc.).

She was appointed Professor of Organ in Performance and Improvisation at the Royal College of Music in London in 2008. She was also a guest professor at Yale University – New Haven, USA.

On September 2017, as part of a series of concerts in Saint-Sulpice, she improvised for the first time on a silent movie (« La passion de Jeanne » of C. Th. Dryer). This live performance has been repeated in concerts in France and abroad. She has been invited to perform for « La fête du Cinéma » (Parsi 2019 and 2020) and for various festivals such as Iserlohn and Pori in 2023, Hambourg, Copenhagen and Oostkamp in 2024.

On May 2023, she was invited to the Jazz Festival of Saint Germain des Prés and she gave a unique and live performance with Rhoda Scott in Saint-Sulpice creating bridges between classical music and jazz music, between gospels ans improvisations. On May 2024, she was invited to repeat this musical challenge with movie music.

She was nominated to the grade of Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur by presidential decree of 14th July 2024.