Emmanuelle Haïm

After training as a pianist and organist, Emmanuelle Haïm studied the harpsichord with Kenneth Gilbert and graduated from the Paris Conservatoire (CNSM) with several premiers prix. Her love for the human voice led her to concentrate after that on conducting vocal music, first of all at the Versailles Centre for Baroque Music (CMBV), then at the Paris Conservatoire. She was soon invited to accompany many distinguished singers in recital, and she developed a regular activity as a continuo player as well. It did not take long for Emmanuelle Haïm to be in demand internationally as a guest conductor. In 2001 she scored a resounding success with Handel’s Rodelinda for Glyndebourne Touring Opera, with which she later conducted Handel’s Theodora.

Since then she has appeared regularly at the Glyndebourne Festival, where she will be presenting L’Incoronazione di Poppea (Monteverdi) in 2008. She also conducts the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO), the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the Deutsche Sinfonie-Orchester Berlin, and Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra (the orchestra of Hessischer Rundfunk). In March 2008 she will be making her debut with the Berlin Philharmonic.

In 2000 Emmanuelle Haïm gathered together a group of accomplished singers and instrumentalists who shared not only a great musical experience, but also a common temperament and a stylistic approach that is both expressive and natural. Thus she formed her own Baroque music ensemble, Le Concert d’Astrée. And within three years she had taken it from success to success, appearing at venues from Paris to New York, as well as at festivals in France and abroad.

From 2001 Le Concert d’Astrée and Emmanuelle Haïm received the support of the France Télécom Foundation. That same year, an exclusive recording contract was signed with Virgin Classics. In 2003 Le Concert d’Astrée received a ‘Victoire’ at the French Classical Music Awards as the Most Outstanding Ensemble of the Year.

Le Concert d’Astrée became ensemble-in-residence at Lille Opéra in 2004, for stage performances of Handel’s Tamerlano, then, in autumn 2005, Monteverdi’s Orfeo. It has also given concerts there, including Handel’s oratorio Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater and Mozart’s C-minor Mass. It appears on other stages in France noted for opera (Opéra National du Rhin, Théâtre de Caen, Bordeaux Opéra, Théâtre du Châtelet and Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, etc.). Abroad, it has performed at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Barbican Centre in London, New York's Lincoln Center, the Konzerthaus in Vienna, and the Potsdam Festival, among many other important venues.

June 2005 saw the founding of the Concert d’Astrée Choir for a stage production of Rameau’s Les Boréades. The choir is conducted by Denis Comtet, who is also musical assistant to Emmanuelle Haïm. Its members were recruited mainly in France and England, with the help of Jonathan Cohen. This choir appears in different forms, from a large chorus to a much smaller vocal group. This year’s production of Monteverdi’s Orfeo provided the perfect opportunity to hear its members in concerts of madrigals for solo voice.

After the tour with Handel’s Theodora in autumn 2006 came stage performances of Bach’s St John Passion (staged by Robert Wilson) at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris in March-April 2007, and Handel’s Giulio Cesare (staged by David McVicar) in Lille in May 2007.

In December 2007, to coincide with the release of the recording of Handel’s Dixit Dominus and the Bach Magnificat on the Virgin label, Le Concert d’Astrée – both orchestra and choir – will be giving a series of concerts in Caen, Paris, London, Rome and Madrid. In February and March 2008 they will be giving Lully’s Thésée (staged by Jean-Louis Martinoty) at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, then at the Opera House in Lille. Further plans include performances of Le Nozze di Figaro by Mozart and of Hyppolite et Aricie by Rameau.

For Virgin Classics, Le Concert d’Astrée has recorded works by Handel (Arcadian Duos, Aci, Galatea e Polifemo and Il Delirio amoroso), Purcell (Dido and Æneas) Monteverdi (Orfeo and Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda) and Mozart (C-minor Mass, conducted by Louis Langrée). More recent CDs include Handel’s Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno with Natalie Dessay, Ann Hallenberg, Sonia Prina and Pavol Breslik. These recordings, made with some of the very finest singers of today, have received excellent reviews and many awards.

Le Concert d’Astrée’s very latest recordings, released recently, are Carestini - The Story of a Castrato with Philippe Jaroussky, and Handel’s Dixit Dominus and the Bach Magnificat with Natalie Dessay, Karine Deshayes, Philippe Jaroussky, Toby Spence and Laurent Naouri.

Since January 2007, thanks to the generous patronage of Mécénat Musical Société Générale, the Concert d’Astrée and Emmanuelle Haïm have been able to continue their creative adventure with serenity. They also receive subsidies from the French Ministry of Culture and Communication, through the Department of Cultural Affairs (DRAC) for the Nord-Pas de Calais Region).