Sébastien Wonner studied harpsichord and basso continuo with Aline Zylberajch and Martin Gester at the Strasbourg Conservatory. As an organist, he studied with Raphaële Garreau de Labarre, André Stricker and Christophe Mantoux. His interest in improvisation led him to work with Freddy Eichelberger as a mentor. He has also received lessons from Pierre Hantaï.
His musical tastes have frequently led him to repertoire from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and vocal repertoire, often collaborating with ensembles such as La Chapelle Rhénane, Doulce Mémoire, La Rêveuse, L’Ensemble Clément Janequin, Consonance, Les Witches, Les Sacqueboutiers and Akâdemia. With these ensembles he has made numerous recordings: H. Schütz’s Symphoniae sacrae, Magnificat d’Uppsala, Musikalische Exequien, and Weihnachtshistorie, S. Capricornus’ Motets, Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu Nostri, Sonatas and Cantatas, P. Verdelot’s Dolci Affetti and Madrigaux, as well as Heureux qui comme Ulysse incorporating texts by J. du Bellay, the Saint John Passion by J.S. Bach, Haendel’s Messiah, the Manuscrit de Suzanne van Soldt, and La Morte d’Orfeo by S. Landi on the labels K617, Alpha, Zig-Zag Territoire (Outhere), Mirare, and Ricercar. His recording of solo harpsichord works by J.P. Sweelinck has been received with critical acclaim. As a soloist and a chamber musician, he seeks diversity in his musical experiences, playing a variety of keyboard instruments (including historical organs and clavichord), pursuing forgotten repertoire, and using improvisation.
While his performances have allowed him to travel to the Americas, Japan, and many European countries, Sébastien is a passionate professor of harpsichord at the conservatory of music (Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional) in Tours, France, where he is currently Head of the Early Music department.
Catherine Zimmer is someone who enjoys straying off the beaten track and exploring terra incognita. She first felt the fascination of keyboards when she was a small child. After studying piano and harpsichord at the conservatoires of Marseilles, Aix-en-Provence and Geneva, where her most influential teacher was - and remains - Pierre Barbizet, she happily flits back and forth between these two keyboard instruments, playing each at different times during her career.
She regularly plays with Early Music ensembles, but also loves to let people hear the harpsichord performing unexpected repertoires, such as Spanish, Corsican and South-American music, or newly-created contemporary music (the Mens Sonoris, Poly-Sons, Poly-Cordes and Salamandre ensembles). She is also invited to perform as a soloist at festivals (Aix-en-Provence, Rieux-Minervois, Les Clavecins de Chartres, etc.), and records works by forgotten composers such as Balbastre, Moreau and Tapray with the Coriolan and L’Encelade labels. These productions have been remarked upon by specialist critics in Europe (Diapason, Classica Répertoire, Early Music, Oxford Journal, etc.), which hail the originality of the programmes, the conviction of orchestral style of playing.
This musicological research work led to her editing the “Les Cahiers du Clavecin” collection, published by the Société de Musicologie du Languedoc, and to a harpsichord textbook published by Van de Velde-Lemoine. Her enthusiasm has also led her to put together a little collection of unusually-made period instruments and to look for the repertoire associated with them. Her dual training as a harpsichordist and pianist means that she can adapt her technique to perform on rare instruments such as Merlin’s 1784 organised pianoforte.
The passing on and sharing of her knowledge are an essential part of her artistic work and inseparable from her musical career. She holds a State diploma as a piano teacher along with the Certificat d'Aptitude as a harpsichord teacher and has taught both instruments at a number of conservatoires (CNR de Marseille, Conservatoire Pierre Barbizet de Marignane, early music department of the CRD Béziers - Méditerranée, then CRD de Corse Henri Tomasi where she set up a harpsichord class in 2006). She has also been an active member of the Clavecin-en-France association for many years, and Clavecin-en-Corse which sets out to make early music heard in Corsica. .
From behind her harpsichord, Aline Zylberajch has been making her presence felt on the Baroque scene for some considerable time now. After studying on both sides of the Atlantic, in Paris (CNSMD) and Boston (New England Conservatory), she contributed to the early work of ensembles such as La Chapelle Royale, Les Musiciens du Louvre and Le Parlement de Musique, with whom she recorded numerous operas and oratorios. These concerts fostered her predilection for vocal music and the way it is echoed in works written for keyboard instruments.
She later came across the music of C.P.E. Bach, and also that of many Central European composers who are often still overlooked nowadays, and as a result she took up a number of other equally expressive keyboard instruments. For instance, she then began exploring the hugely diverse soundscapes of 18th century music, using a whole host of different instruments, such as Cristofori, Silbermanns, Pantalonflügeln, and a range of different pianoforte mechanisms as varied as the ones on which Mozart performed during his travels across Europe. This period, which also saw the increasing popularity of duos, trios and quartets all with prerequisite keyboard instruments, opened up a whole new field of research into chamber music, another of her passions.
On her musical journey, Aline then came across the psaltery/dulcimer, whose leather or flannel-covered wooden hammers set the strings vibrating with a kind of poetry which is ripe for rediscovery. So, naturally enough, the tangent piano and the magical palette of colours it offers became the ideal medium for her work with longstanding musical partner Alice Piérot, sharing all the melancholy, fiery passion, humour and tenderness found in the music of C.P.E. Bach. Although based in Strasbourg, where she teaches the harpsichord at the Conservatoire, Aline frequently travels abroad to give classes in the performing arts in Germany, Australia, Austria, Spain, the United States, Japan, Mexico and Poland.
Her recordings have been reviewed very favourably, including a “Diapason d'Or”, a score of 10 awarded by Répertoire, a “Choc du Monde de la Musique”, Recommended by Classica, Gramophone, Early Music Review, etc.