Reinoud van Mechelen, Ana Vieira Leite, Julie Roset, Les Arts Florissants & Paul Agnew
Biography Reinoud van Mechelen, Ana Vieira Leite, Julie Roset, Les Arts Florissants & Paul Agnew
Paul Agnew
An artist of international renown and an accomplished teacher, Paul Agnew, who was born in Glasgow, received his earliest musical education with Birmingham Cathedral Choir. He afterwards went to Magdalen College, Oxford, before joining the Consort of Musicke, with which he performed music from both the Italian and the English Renaissances. He was auditioned by William Christie in 1992 and subsequently became the performer of choice for the high-tenor roles of the French Baroque repertory. He was acclaimed in major roles in operas by Rameau and also in Charpentier, Handel and Purcell.
While he continued to sing with prestigious conductors in the leading international venues, his career took a new turn in 2007 when he began conducting certain projects for Les Arts Florissants. His first programme as guest conductor featured Vivaldi’s Vespers. This was followed by, among others, Handel’s Odes and Anthems and, the following year, Lamentazione, a concert devoted to Italian-Baroque polyphony, which was to be Paul Agnew’s first recording as Associate Conductor of Les Arts Florissants.
In 2010, he conducted the ensemble again in Purcell’s The Indian Queen before undertaking the complete cycle of Monteverdi’s madrigals, a project for which he had conducted over 100 concerts by the end of 2015, and recording an anthology drawn from all eight books of madrigals and released in three volumes: Cremona (2015), Mantova (2014) and Venezia (for release in autumn 2016).
During the 2013/14 season, he was appointed Associate Musical Director of Les Arts Florissants, which he has since conducted regularly in France and abroad.
Paul Agnew is also co-director of Le Jardin des Voix, the academy of Les Arts Florissants for young singers. His interest in training new generations of musicians has led him to conduct the Orchestre Français des Jeunes Baroque on many occasions, and also the European Union Baroque Orchestra. He has also conducted several concerts with orchestras using modern instruments, among them the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the St Paul Chamber Orchestra (Minnesota) and Music of the Baroque (Chicago).
Les Arts Florissants
A renowned musical Ensemble, specialized in Baroque music since 1979. Founded in 1979 by William Christie, Les Arts Florissants is one of the best-known baroque-music ensembles in the world. Established in the name of creativity, pleasure and sharing, the Ensemble — which takes its name from a short opera by Marc-Antoine Charpentier — has played a pioneering role in the revival of a repertoire that had been largely forgotten and which is now enjoyed across the globe in all the most prestigious concert houses. This pioneering spirit has never died, and Les Arts Florissants’ two artistic directors, William Christie and Paul Agnew, continue the Ensemble’s tradition of research and innovation today.
"Almost 40 years ago a group of friends and I founded Les Arts Florissants, the ensemble that has allowed me to rediscover the magnificent repertoire of the baroque age and perform it in all of the world’s most prestigious halls. At the same time, in the Vendée, I have accomplished another of my dreams: creating a unique and original garden around my 17th-century manor house, which is now the setting each year for the , where we welcome music lovers from all over the world.
“Encouraged by these years of success, I now feel it is time to put Les Arts Florissants on a firm footing for the future. For this reason, the creation of a foundation, recognized by the French government as being of “public utility,” was fundamental. And to make it possible, I have decided to gift all my properties, including my house and gardens, to the Foundation Les Arts Florissants – William Christie.
“This project is the realization of the dream of a lifetime. A dream of music and gardens, but also of the handing on of savoir-faire and passion to future generations of artists and audiences. It is here that all my desires converge and that everything begins. This is the start of a great adventure!” (William Christie)
Reinoud van Mechelen
graduated from his vocal studies at the Conservatoire Royal in Brussels in the class of Dina Grossberger in 2012. In 2017 he was awarded the prestigious Caecilia Prize as Young Musician of the Year from the union of the Belgian music press. An acknowledgement from "home" for the artist who managed to establish himself at numerous international stages within his early years of career.
Already in 2007 Reinoud Van Mechelen caught attention at the European Baroque Academy in Ambronay (France) under the baton of Hervé Niquet. In 2011 he was a member of William Christie’s and Paul Agnew’s "Jardin des Voix" and became a regular soloist of Les Arts florissants subsequently. Guest appeareances with this ensemble made him perform at the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, the Edinburgh Festival, the Château de Versailles, the Bolchoï Theatre in Moscow, the Royal Albert Hall and the Barbican Centre in London, the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, the Philharmony and the Opéra Comique in Paris as well as at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York.
Many renowned Baroque ensembles such as Collegium Vocale, Le Concert Spirituel, La Petite Bande, Les Talens Lyriques, Pygmalion, Le Poème Harmonique, Il Gardellino, Insula Orchestra, L’Arpeggiata, Ludus Modalis, B’Rock, Ricercar Consort, Capriccio Stravagante, Scherzi Musicali and the European Union Baroque Orchestra ensured his cooperation.
In 2014 Reinoud Van Mechelen sang the part of the Evangelist in J. S. Bach's St. John Passionfor the first time in his career with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, a part he will be singing again with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam, among others. The last few seasons have, however, been highlighted by his performances of Rameau’s title-role in Dardanus (Opéra national de Bordeaux) and Zoroastre (on concert-tour to the Festival de Montpellier et Radio-France, the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, the Festival de Beaune, the Théâtre Royal in Versailles and the Theater an der Wien), both productions with Raphaël Pichon conducting. 2016/17 saw his Zurich Opera debut as Jason in Charpentier's Médée conducted by William Christie. Apart from numerous other commitments, he added further new roles in concert version to his repertory: Belmonte (The Abduction from the Seraglio) with the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris and Gérald (Lakmé) with the Munich Radio Orchestra.
Besides numerous performances with his own ensemble, a nocte temporis, his last two seasons have been highlighted by the jubilee-production celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Concert Spirituel („L'Opéra des Opéras", recorded and released by Alpha Classics) as well as in two international concert-tours with Les Arts florissants. He also performed the title-role in Rameau’s Pygmalion at the Dijon Opera and made his debuts at the Théâtre royal de la Monnaie (Tamino in Die Zauberflöte) and at the Staatsoper Berlin (Hippolyte in Hippolyte et Aricie under the baton of Sir Simon Rattle).
His 2019/20 season promises to be busy with his role debut as Nadir (Les Pêcheurs de perles) at the Toulon Opera, Purcell's King Arthur at the Staatsoper Berlin, Rameau's Pygmalion at the Grand Théâtre in Luxembourg,L'incoronazione di Poppea (Arnalta) at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées and both the St John Passionas St Matthew Passionwith Collegium Vocale Gent.
Reinoud Van Mechelen already joined numerous recordings. His first solo album with the title "Erbame Dich" (arias by J. S. Bach) was released by Alpha Classics in 2016 finding unanimous acclaim by the press and receiving both a "Choc" from the monthly magazine Classica („A Bach-recording blessed by the gods“) as well as one of 10 Caecilia-Awards for the best recordings of the year 2016. Meanwhile three further albums with a nocte temporis have been released by Alpha Classics: "Clérambault, cantates françaises" (2018, "Diapason d'or"), "The Dubhlinn Gardens" (2019) and ‘Dumesny, haute-contre de Lully’ (2019).
