Lemieux et Jaroussky en parfaite complicité

Cellist and harpsichordist Jonathan Cohen is one of the most accomplished and sought-after British musicians of his generation. A fervent promoter of chamber music, he has mastered and explored repertoires ranging from baroque opera to the classical symphony. Cohen gained widespread recognition as associate conductor of Les Arts Florissants and, from 2010, as founder and artistic director of the Arcangelo ensemble. He has worked with Les Violons du Roy since 2014 and became their musical director in 2018. He also serves as artistic director of the Tetbury Music Festival and Boston’s prestigious Handel and Haydn Society.

A much-in-demand guest conductor, Cohen has appeared on both sides of the Atlantic with numerous ensembles, including the Budapest Festival Orchestra, the Basel Chamber Orchestra, the Liège Royal Philharmonic, the Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France, the New York Philharmonic and the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra.

Throughout the 24-25 season, he returns to Kammerorchester Basel and directs performances of St Matthew Passion with both Rotterdam Philharmonic and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. He returns to Glyndebourne Festival for a revival of Barrie Kosky’s production of Handel Saul. He leads both Handel and Haydn Society and Houston Symphony Orchestra in Messiah, and with Handel and Haydn he also conducts Haydn The Seasons, Mozart Requiem and Beethoven Mass in C.

In addition to his impressive discography of almost 30 works as director of Arcangelo, he has recorded three albums with Les Violons du Roy, all of which have garnered national and international acclaim. His album devoted to Handel and Glass with American countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo earned Les Violons du Roy their first-ever Grammy nomination in 2019. Cohen has introduced several prestigious guest artists to audiences of Les Violons du Roy and has toured three times in Europe and North America with them.

It is no wonder that Marie-Nicole Lemieux shines today in the world of singing: the singer like the woman radiates an aura that belongs only to the greatest. Her vocal talents were revealed to the public in 2000 when she won the Queen Fabiola and Lied Prize at the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Belgium.

She then began an international career that has led her to the world’s most famous stages: Teatro alla Scala, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Paris National Opera, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse, La Monnaie in Brussels, Staatsoper of Berlin, Munich and Vienna, Opernhaus Zürich, Theater an der Wien, Teatro Real in Madrid, Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, Salzburg Festival, Glyndebourne Festival, Chorégies d’Orange, Canadian Opera Company in Toronto, Montreal Opera.

Her powerful voice, her superb sense of line and a faultless virtuosity as well as her sense of nuance and drama allows her to triumph in various repertories. The beginning of her career is marked by baroque music (Orphée et Eurydice by Gluck, Giulio Cesare, Ariodante, Orlando Furioso, Salomon, Theodora). The evolution of her voice soon allowed her to take on the French repertoire of the 19thcentury (Les Troyens, Pelléas et Mélisande, Samson et Dalila, Carmen), Rossini (Guillaume Tell, Tancredi, L’Italiana in Algeri) and also Verdi (Mrs. Quickly in Falstaff, Azucena in Il Trovatore, Ulrica in Un Ballo in maschera)

Alongside her stage career, Marie-Nicole Lemieux is invited to sing the great symphonic repertoire with prestigious orchestras (New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Métropolitain, Orchestre symphonique de Québec, Les Violons du Roy, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Orchestra dell’Accademia Santa Cecilia, London Philharmonia, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio-France, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine) under the baton of renown conductors such as: William Christie, Myung-Whun Chung, Paul Daniel, Charles Dutoit, Ivan Fischer, Mikko Franck, Daniele Gatti, Bernard Haitink, Daniel Harding, Paavo Järvi, Bernard Labadie, Louis Langrée, Kurt Masur, Kent Nagano, John Nelson, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Gianandrea Noseda, Antonio Pappano, Mikhaïl Tatarnikov, Michel Plasson, Michael Schønwandt, Jean-Christophe Spinosi, Pinchas Steinberg, Pinchas Zukerman.

The counter-tenor Philippe Jaroussky has established himself as one of the major singers in the international musical world as confirmed by the French Victoires de la Musique (Revelation Artiste Lyrique in 2004, Artiste lyrique de l'année in 2007 and 2010) and at the Echo Klassik Awards in Germany in 2008 in Munich (Singer of the Year) and in 2009 in Dresden (with L’Arpeggiata).

An impressive mastery of vocal technique allows performances full of nuance and vocal acrobatics. Philippe Jaroussky’s vast repertoire of the Baroque era ranges from the refinements of the Italian Seicento with Monteverdi, Sances and Rossi to the staggering brilliance of Handel and Vivaldi; the latter being one of the most performed composers by Philippe recently in addition to performing Johann Christian Bach’s works.

Lately, he has also explored very different repertoire of French melodies accompanied by the pianist Jerôme Ducros. Increasingly captivated by contemporary works, Jaroussky performed a song cycle composed by Marc André Dalbavie from the sonnets of Louise Labbé. He did the creation of the opera Only the Sound remains of Kaija Saariaho at Nederlande Opera Ballet in Amsterdam on March 2016.

Philippe Jaroussky has had the pleasure of collaborating with some of the best baroque ensembles.
He has performed to high acclaim in the most prestigious festivals and concert halls around the world.

In 2002 he founded l'Ensemble Artaserse, which currently performs throughout Europe.

Already having an impressive discography, Philippe collaborated with the Edition Vivaldi de Naïve with Jean-Christophe Spinosi and the Ensemble Matheus. Philippe Jaroussky has been an exclusive artist with Erato-Warner Classics for many years and has received many awards for his recordings.