La Chapelle Royale is a French ensemble of baroque music.
La Chapelle Royale was founded in 1977 in Paris by the Belgian conductor Philippe Herreweghe. It takes its name from the Chapelle royale of the French kings.
The initial vocation of the ensemble was to interpret the great French repertoire of the 17th century (Henri Dumont, Jean-Baptiste Lully, Marc-Antoine Charpentier, André Campra, Jean Gilles...) but, since 1985, Herreweghe associated it more and more with his own Belgian ensemble, the Collegium Vocale Gent.
Next to La Chapelle Royale, Philippe Herreweghe also founded the "Ensemble Vocal Européen de la Chapelle Royale".
La Chapelle Royale was, during the 1980s, together with Les Arts Florissants, one of the pillars of the musical revolution known in France and Belgium under the name of "Baroqueux" (see Historically informed performance or "performance on period instruments"), initiated during the 1970s by Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Gustav Leonhardt.
All these recordings have been published by Harmonia Mundi.
Collegium Vocale Gent is a Belgian musical ensemble of vocalists and supporting instrumentalists, founded by Philippe Herreweghe. The group specializes in historically informed performance.
Gérard Lesne is a French countertenor. He is also the founder and artistic director of the baroque music ensemble, Il Seminario Musicale.
Philippe Maria François Herreweghe, Knight Herreweghe is a Belgian conductor and choirmaster.
Jean-Joseph de Mondonville, also known as Jean-Joseph Cassanéa de Mondonville, was a French violinist and composer. He was a younger contemporary of Jean-Philippe Rameau and enjoyed great success in his day. Pierre-Louis Daquin claimed, "If I couldn't be Rameau, there's no one I would rather be than Mondonville".
Christophe Rousset is a French harpsichordist and conductor, who specializes in the performance of Baroque music on period instruments. He is also a musicologist, particularly of opera and European music of the 17th and 18th centuries and is the founder of the French music ensemble Les Talens Lyriques.
Sandrine Piau is a French soprano. She is particularly renowned in Baroque music although also excels in Romantic and modernist art songs. She has the versatility to perform works from Vivaldi, Handel, Mozart to Schumann, Debussy, and Poulenc. In addition to an active career in concerts and operas, she is prolific in studio recordings, primarily with Harmonia Mundi, Naïve, and Alpha since 2018.
Jean Gilles was a French composer, born at Tarascon.
Agnès Mellon is a French soprano who specializes in baroque music.
Peter Kooij is a Dutch bass singer who specializes in baroque music.
Dorothee Mields is a German soprano concert singer of Baroque and contemporary music.
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Le Concert Spirituel is a French ensemble specialising in works of baroque music, played on period instruments. Founded by Hervé Niquet in 1987, it is named after the 18th-century concert series Concert Spirituel. The group performs internationally, playing mostly rarely performed sacred music and operas, and making recordings. Its focus is on French music played at the court of Versailles.
Hana Blažíková is a Czech soprano and harpist. She is focused on Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque music, appearing internationally. She has recorded as a member of the Bach Collegium Japan, among many others.
Akadêmia is a French early music ensemble founded in 1986 by conductor Françoise Lasserre. The initial group of singers were formed from members of Philippe Herreweghe's Chapelle Royale.
Pascal Bertin is a French countertenor.
Greta De Reyghere is a Belgian soprano who specializes in early music and Baroque music in historically informed performance but also performs a variety of other classical music in concert. She is a teacher at the Royal Conservatory of Liège.
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Václav Luks is a Czech harpsichordist, horn player, conductor, musicologist and pedagogue, founder and artistic director of the Prague baroque orchestra Collegium 1704 and of the vocal ensemble Collegium Vocale 1704. He specialises in Baroque music, especially in the works of Jan Dismas Zelenka, Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frideric Handel, and others. His activities have played an important role in reviving interest in the works of Czech composers including Zelenka and Josef Mysliveček. In 2022, Luks was awarded the title of Knight of the French Ministry of Culture, Arts and Letters.
Olivier Schneebeli is a French conductor and choirmaster, as well as music teacher, known for his work on Baroque music. He was named to the Legion of Honour in 2021.