Born in Belle into a family of jurists at the start of Napoleon’s Empire, from a child Edmond de Coussemaker proved to be enormously skilled as a singer and pianist. ""At the age of ten, he read every type of music at first sight. He learned to play the violin and cello, but his preference made him particularly choose singing."" (""À dix ans il lisait à première vue toute espèce de musique. Il apprit à jouer du violon et du violoncelle mais son goût le portrait particulièrement vers le chant."", François-Joseph Fétis in "Biographie Universelle des musiciens", Didot, 1860-1865). He continued his studies at the Dowaai grammar school, where he studied violin with Joseph Baudouin and singing and harmony with Moreau, who was an organist at Saint Peter’s Church. In 1825, his father sent him to Paris to study law. In those days La Dame Blanche by Boïeldieu was a huge success there. Simultaneously, de Coussemaker started studying musical composition with Antonin Reicha and improved himself in the vocal arts with Felice Pellegrini, who performed Rossini’s operas in Paris at that time.