Emmanuelle Guigues studied the viola da gamba with Jordi Savall, Paolo Pandolfo and Christophe Coin. She appears on stage and records with numerous and varied ensembles. Mindful of maintaining a vivacious relationship with her art and the instrument, she is intensely involved in contemporary creation for the viola da gamba.
Her personal research also takes her along the path of traditional music, in the singular register of the Caucasian Kamânsheh, to which she was initiated by Gaguik Mouradian. More than anything it is a timbre, but also the immediacy of musical speech which calls out to her in that precise repertoire. She joyfully travels to wherever her instruments may take her: Ethiopia, Syria, Iran, India, Romania, Brazil… and actively nurtures partnerships with other forms of expression such as theatre, or dance.
She has recorded three albums as a soloist: Bach’s Sonatas for viola da gamba and harpsichord (Choc du Monde de la Musique), the Pièces de Viole by François Couperin, as well as an opus dedicated to Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, with the fortepianist Daniel Isoir. She teaches viola da gamba at the National School of Music in Villeurbanne, as well as at the Versailles Conservatory and, thanks to her students, continues to learn.
More information on : www.emmanuelleguigues.net
Guillaume Haldenwang is a harpsichordist and choirmaster. He is a popular continuo player and has performed as a member of Les Arts Florissants, Les Talens Lyriques, Il Pomo d’Oro, L'Ensemble Correspondances, L’Ensemble Clément Janequin and L’Ensemble Matheus. He has also worked as a choirmaster/accompanist at the Paris National Opera. When he gives concerts, critics praise his “infallible musicality” (Première Loge), “the utter clarity of his playing” (Resmusica) and his continuo with its “delicious counterpoints, gracious arpeggios and delicate ornaments” (Diapason).
After beginning to play the harpsichord in Niort, Guillaume Haldenwang studied in Paris with Noëlle Spieth, Béatrice Martin and Frédéric Michel. He was taught at master-classes by renowned harpsichordists such as Pierre Hantaï, Bertrand Cuiller and Francesco Corti. Guillaume Haldenwang also holds a degree in musicology from La Sorbonne University, and heads up the La Palatine ensemble together with the soprano Marie Théoleyre.
The members of The Harpies are :
Odile Edouard (violins), Mickaël Cozien (bagpipes), Pierre Gallon (regal-spinettino and colascione),
Freddy Eichelberger (organ, cithern and direction)
Freddy Eichelberger Odile Edouard
Pierre Gallon Mickaël Cozien
From a very young age, Jean-Luc Ho developed a passion for early keyboard instruments. He started playing the harpsichord when he was eight and later took an interest in the organ and the clavichord. He graduated from the Paris Conservatoire (CNSMDP) in 2006 (First prize in harpsichord with Olivier Baumont and in figured bass with Blandine Rannou). Greatly influenced by the teaching of Blandine Verlet, he also benefited from the advice of Martin Gester and Jos van Immerseel.
His taste for period instruments and the art of instrument making has given him access to famous instrument collections and prestigious organ lofts. He has given recitals at the Cobbe Collection in Hatchlands, the Fenton House collection in London, the Musée de la Musique in Paris, the Musée des Beaux Arts in Chartres, the Château d'Assas and performed on the organs of Ste Croix de Bordeaux, Souvigny, Dole and St Remy in Dieppe.
A regular guest on France Musique as a soloist, he has been heard in CPE Bach's harpsichord concerto in D minor Wq 23, playing the Longmann & Brodrip from the Musée de la Musique (2008), in recital (Young Performers’ Series, Radio France-Montpellier Festival) and on Gaëtan Naulleau's "Matin des Musiciens", for a program entirely devoted to Bach and Couperin.
Jean-Luc is also in great demand as a continuo player, and has performed and recorded with Hervé Niquet (Le Concert Spirituel), David Stern (Opera fuoco), Benjamin Perrot (La Rêveuse), Jay Bernfeld (Fuoco e Cenere) and Raphaël Pichon (Pygmalion).
He taught harpsichord at the music school in Franconville (Val d’Oise) from 2004 to 2011, and enjoys sharing his passion for music with a wider audience at the Abbaye de Royaumont, the Musée de la Musique in Paris, and with Arcal (compagnie nationale de théâtre lyrique et musical).
At both the organ and the harpsichord, Élisabeth Joyé has made a quest for subtlety the intuitive lodestone of her musical life. Bob van Asperen, Jos van Immerseel, and above all Gustav Leonhardt have guided her in this search for expressiveness and musicality. She has made solo recordings performing J. S. Bach’s Short Preludes and Fugues (Casa), Inventions and Sinfonias, (Alpha) along with works by François Couperin (Alpha) and Jacques Duphly (Alpha), and has recorded with Le Concert Français (Pierre Hantaï), La Simphonie du Marais (Hugo Reyne), Les Musiciens du Louvre (Marc Minkowski) and Le Concert Spirituel (Hervé Niquet), as well as recording music by John Blow with her own ensemble La Canzona (with Gérard Lesne), performing in concert with her musician friends (Benjamin Alard, Simon Heyerick, Emmanuel Balssa, François Fernandez, Sébastien Marq, Pierre Hamon, Christine Plubeau, Monique Zanetti, Karine Serafin, etc.), and appearing at many festivals around the world.
Élisabeth Joyé is also a much sought-after teacher and has always cared deeply about sharing her work on the “Art of playing the harpsichord” with others as part of a quest “to achieve a singing, expressive way of playing”, as J. S. Bach wrote in the preface to Inventions. She teaches at the Conservatoire Erik Satie in the 7e arrondissement in Paris, and gives master classes both in France and abroad.
Photo: Jean-Baptiste Millot
Having started off as a pianist and cellist, Noémie Lenhof fell in love with the viola da gamba while she was studying heritage conservation at the École Nationale des Chartes in 2013. After initially being guided by Christine Plubeau, she joined Christophe Coin’s class at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris in 2017, graduating with a unanimously-awarded mark of "Très Bien” in 2022.
The viola da gamba is a multifaceted instrument with a wide variety of repertoires, and offers infinite scope which Noémie loves to explore. First and foremost there is chamber music, which she performs regularly with well-known musicians such as Olivier Baumont, Hugo Reyne and Alexis Kossenko, and also with her long-time partner-in-crime, the harpsichordist Guillaume Haldenwang. Together, they won the F.J. Aumann prize at the 2019 International Biber competition (Austria).
Very early on in her career, Noémie also joined various larger ensembles, with which she enjoys honing her skills on - amongst other things - the basso continuo. These include Les Musiciens du Louvre (Marc Minkowski), Les Ambassadeurs - La Grande Ecurie (Alexis Kossenko), Artaserse (Philippe Jaroussky), Correspondances (Sébastien Daucé), Les Musiciens de Saint-Julien (François Lazarevitch), etc.
Finally, Noémie has recently made her name as a soloist, giving a number of recitals both in France and abroad (Château de Goulaine, Oude Muziek Utrecht, etc.). “Marin Marais, Le Manuscrit Retrouvé” is her first album.
Marouan Mankar-Bennis first embarked upon his musical studies in Limoges, and then refined what he had learned with Élisabeth Joyé, who was to play a crucial role in his development. He joined the CNSM de Paris where he won the prizes for harpsichord and basso continuo in Olivier Baumont and Blandine Rannou’s classes. He completed his education at various summer academies where he attended classes taught by Bob van Asperen, Nicolau de Figueredo and Pierre Hantaï.
His work as both a concert performer and a choirmaster led him to work regularly with Vincent Dumestre, the conductor of Le Poème Harmonique with whom he has performed in London, New York, Brussels, Krakow, Saint Petersburg, Vienna and Tokyo. Among these recent collaborations we must mention the recording of Michel Lambert’s Leçons de Ténèbres with the baritone Marc Mauillon for Harmonia Mundi, and the creations based around the 18th-century fairground parody repertoire with the Pécheurs de Perles company.
He is fascinated by research and teaching and holds the Certificat d'Aptitude vocational teaching certificate. He was also awarded the Société Générale musical patronage grant. He currently teaches at the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Départemental de Pantin and regularly supervises work experience placements and artistic projects both in France and abroad - for instance at the University of Santander in Spain, the Academy of Music in Vilnius and the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow.