La Guilde des Mercenaires is an Early Music ensemble specialising in the Renaissance and Baroque repertoire for wind instruments. In the Middle Ages, a “guilde” (guild) referred to a group of people who shared the same profession or other interests and who came together to cooperate and help one another. In this case the group is formed around the cornet player Adrien Mabire and with a hint of humour, the best and bravest musicians of our day, who travel to and fro across France and Europe. La Guilde des Mercenaires are no lone rangers, they all work with other ensembles such as the Le Banquet Céleste conducted by Damien Guillon. The ensemble’s discography already features five recordings, all of which are critically-acclaimed: “Ricercare per Strumenti Insieme” (2016, L’Encelade), “Mottetti e Canzoni Virtuoso” (2019, L’Encelade), “Gloria a Venezia” (2021, CVS), “La Légende Noire” (2021, Lanvellec), and “Frescobaldi, Canzoni Da Sonare 1634” (2022, Lanvellec). “Riposta” will be released in autumn 2023.
Adrien Mabire is from Caen and studied modern trumpet with Stéphane Bellenger, before turning his attention to Early Music and its wind instruments, which he studied with Serge Delmas (cornetto), Jean-François Madeuf (natural trumpet) and Elsa Frank (recorder). For a number of years, he appeared as a guest with the biggest specialist ensembles such as Le Poème Harmonique (Vincent Dumestre), Artaserse (Philippe Jaroussky), Le Concert Spirituel (Hervé Niquet), the Collegium Vocale Gent, the Orchestre des Champs-Élysées (Philippe Herreweghe), The English Baroque Soloists (John Eliot Gardiner), Les Talens Lyriques (Christophe Rousset), Ricercar Consort (Philippe Pierlot), Correspondances (Sébastien Daucé) and Anima Eterna (Jos van Immersel).
Riposta from left to right : Gabriel Rignol, Manon Papasergio, Adrien Mabire, Violaine le Chenadec, Yoann Moulin and Jean-Luc Ho
(missing Jérémie Papasergio)