The Paris Boys Choir (Les Petits Chanteurs de Sainte-Croix de Neuilly) is a boys' choir created in 1956 at Collège Sainte-Croix de Neuilly in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, France.
Neuilly-sur-Seine is a French commune just west of Paris, in the department of Hauts-de-Seine. A suburb of Paris, Neuilly is immediately adjacent to the city and directly extends it. The area is composed of mostly wealthy, select residential neighbourhoods, and many corporate headquarters are located there. It is the wealthiest and most expensive suburb of Paris.
Hauts-de-Seine is a department of France. It is part of the Métropole du Grand Paris and of the Île-de-France region, and covers the western inner suburbs of Paris. It is small and densely populated and contains the modern office, theatre, and shopping complex known as La Défense.
France, officially the French Republic, is a country whose territory consists of metropolitan France in Western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The metropolitan area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean. It is bordered by Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany to the northeast, Switzerland and Italy to the east, and Andorra and Spain to the south. The overseas territories include French Guiana in South America and several islands in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. The country's 18 integral regions span a combined area of 643,801 square kilometres (248,573 sq mi) and a total population of 67.3 million. France, a sovereign state, is a unitary semi-presidential republic with its capital in Paris, the country's largest city and main cultural and commercial centre. Other major urban areas include Lyon, Marseille, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Lille and Nice.
Contents
Louis Prudhomme founded the choir in 1956, as a revival to one of the Collège's oldest institutions: the Schola, an elite choir born at the same time as Sainte-Croix itself and much celebrated at the time by poet and alumnus Henry de Montherlant. Prudhomme significantly developed the choir's activities and built strong ties with the nascent Pueri Cantores federation, instituted by Monseigneur Maillet – the founder of Les Petits Chanteurs à la Croix de Bois – making it one France's utmost children's choirs.
Henry Marie Joseph Frédéric Expedite Millon de Montherlant was a French essayist, novelist, and dramatist. He was elected to the Académie française in 1960.
In 1985, François Polgár – a Sainte-Croix alumnus who then successively became assistant director of Les Chœurs de l'Opéra de Paris and director of Le Chœur de Radio France – was asked by Prudhomme to succeed him. Faithful to his predecessor's philosophy and impetus, Polgár embarked the choir on a path of radical modernization. Les Petits Chanteurs de Sainte-Croix de Neuilly were redeployed into a "Maîtrise": a specially adapted curriculum was crafted at Sainte-Croix for boy pupils willing to practice intensive choir singing and live a unique experience based on music apprenticeship and teamwork, while pursuing regular academic studies.
François Polgár is a contemporary French choral conductor, organist, composer and musicologist.
Radio France is a French public service radio broadcaster.
The choir contributes to the Collège's milestone ceremonies and is at the heart of the students' musical experience. It makes frequent appearances in world-class festivals (Oxford, Aix-en-Provence, Auvers-sur-Oise, Wengen, etc.) and regularly performs great pieces with orchestra (Mozart's Requiem, Fauré's Requiem, Handel's Messiah, etc.). Its repertoire also includes a variety of a cappella liturgical and profane songs.
Oxford is a university city in south central England and the county town of Oxfordshire. With a population of approximately 155,000, it is the 52nd largest city in the United Kingdom, with one of the fastest growing populations in the UK, and it remains the most ethnically diverse area in Oxfordshire county. The city is 51 miles (82 km) from London, 61 miles (98 km) from Bristol, 59 miles (95 km) from Southampton, 57 miles (92 km) from Birmingham and 24 miles (39 km) from Reading.
Aix-en-Provence, or simply Aix, is a city and commune in Southern France, about 30 km (19 mi) north of Marseille. A former capital of Provence, it is in the region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, in the department of Bouches-du-Rhône, of which it is a subprefecture. The population of Aix-en-Provence numbers approximately 143,000. Its inhabitants are called Aixois or, less commonly, Aquisextains.
Auvers-sur-Oise is a commune in the northwestern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located 27.2 km (16.9 mi) from the centre of Paris. It is associated with several famous artists, the most prominent being Vincent van Gogh.
Every summer, The Paris Boys Choir go on tour, in France and around the world. They have performed in every region in France, and they have also sung including the US, the UK, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Canada, numerous Eastern European countries.
François Polgár trained the actors of the movie Of Gods and Men who were to play monks in the Cistercian and Gregorian chants. [1] French DJ and producer Martin Solveig was a soprano soloist in The Paris Boys Choir as he was a child, under the direction of François Polgár. [2]
Of Gods and Men is a 2010 French drama film directed by Xavier Beauvois, starring Lambert Wilson and Michael Lonsdale. Its original French language title is Des hommes et des dieux, which means "Of Men and of Gods" and refers to a verse from the Bible shown at the beginning of the film. It centers on the monastery of Tibhirine, where nine Trappist monks lived in harmony with the largely Muslim population of Algeria, until seven of them were kidnapped and assassinated in 1996 during the Algerian Civil War.
Gregorian chant is the central tradition of Western plainchant, a form of monophonic, unaccompanied sacred song of the Roman Catholic Church. Gregorian chant developed mainly in western and central Europe during the 9th and 10th centuries, with later additions and redactions. Although popular legend credits Pope Gregory I with inventing Gregorian chant, scholars believe that it arose from a later Carolingian synthesis of Roman chant and Gallican chant.
The French are an ethnic group and nation who are identified with the country of France. This connection may be ethnic, legal, historical, or cultural.
On its website, The Paris Boys Choir reassess the singer's mission statement: "Through our singing and our actions as 'Missionaries of Peace', we pledge to deepen our spiritual reflection and that of our public. Through our hard work, recordings and live performances, we seek ever improving musical quality and vow to contribute to the renewal of the French children's choir school."
