Swiss and French, Karol Beffa studied music in parallel with his general studies after having been a child actor between the ages of seven and twelve in more than fifteen films (he played with the Piccolo Teatro di Milano under the direction of Giorgio Strehler and interpreted Mozart at the age of eight in Marcel Bluwal?s television film).

After graduating from the Ecole Normale Supérieure, he studied history (BA), English (MA), philosophy (MA at Cambridge University) and mathematics. He entered the CNSM in Paris in 1988, where he obtained eight first prizes (harmony, counterpoint, fugue, 20th century music, orchestration, analysis, vocal accompaniment, piano improvisation). After passing the agrégation de musique, he taught at the University of Paris IV-Sorbonne (1998-2003). In 2003, he obtained a doctorate in musicology with a thesis on the Etudes for piano by Ligeti. Since 2004, he has been a lecturer at the Ecole Normale Supérieure. He was elected to the annual chair of artistic creation at the Collège de France in 2012-2013 and defended his Habilitation to direct research in 2015.

In 2000, he was selected to represent France at the International Biennale of Young Artists in Turin. In 2002, he was the youngest French composer programmed at the Présences festival. Composer in residence at the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse from 2006 to 2009, he composed a violin concerto created by Renaud Capuçon and a piano concerto created by Boris Berezovski. As a pianist, he regularly accompanies silent films, readings and improvises on themes suggested by the public. As a composer, he has written some twenty film scores and three stage scores. In 2016 he was awarded the Grand Prix lycéen des compositeurs and in 2017 the Grand Prix de la musique symphonique de la SACEM for his entire career. In 2013 and 2018, he won the Victoires de la Musique classique.

In 2015, he published (with Cédric Villani, Flammarion) Behind the scenes of creation and, in 2016, György Ligeti (Fayard). In 2017: Speaking, Composing, Playing. Seven lessons on music (Seuil). In 2018 : Diabolus in opera. Composing with the voice (Alma) and Anagrams for four hands. A vagabond history of musicians and their works (with Jacques Perry-Salkow, Actes Sud). Latest monographic CDs released: Into the Dark (Aparte), Blow up and In black and white (Indesens), Twelve Studies (AdVitam).

The Sypniewski sisters, officially form the  Sypniewski Trio  They are used to playing together since they were young. 

They have benefited from the advice of François Salque and master classes with the Modigliani Quartet, and trained at the Académie Ravel in Saint-Jean de Luz, where they won several prizes. Each of them graduated from the Paris Conservatory (CNSMDP) and has carried out various chamber music projects on her own, and has trained with renowned teachers in France and abroad. Together, they have been invited to play in numerous French festivals. 

Orangerie de Sceaux, the Jeudis musicaux de Royan, the Ateliers Hermès, the Château d?Écouen, the Festival Piano Pic, the Festival Melomania de Grasse, the Hôtel Richelieu de Châteauroux, and more recently the Festival Musique en Beaujolais. They have shared the stage with pianists Clément Lefebvre, Adam Laloum, Alexandre Kantorow, and Jean-Philippe Fonsalas, not to mention violinists Alexandre Pascal and Hugues Borsarello.

Anna, the viola player, born in 1999, is currently studying in Jean Sulem's class at the CNSMD in Paris. She has taken part in various master-classes where she has received advice from Miguel da Silva, Lise Berthaud, Tatjana Masurenko, the Ebène Quartet? She performs regularly at the Paris Chamber Music Centre. At the age of 16, she distinguished herself with a 1^er prize at the National Competition for Young Violists.  

Magdalena, the violinist, born in 1996, also studied at the CNSMD in the class of Roland Daugareil, and was able to benefit from the teaching of Stéphan Picard during an Erasmus exchange in Berlin. She was selected to participate in two sessions of the Seiji Ozawa String Quartet Academy. She is a laureate of the 2^th prize at the Cullerarts International Violin Competition. 

The eldest of the three sisters, cellist Caroline, was born in 1992. After studying with Jérôme Pernoo, she took part in Gautier Capuçon?s class of excellence at the Fondation Vuitton, then went on to perfect her skills at the Mozarteum in Salzburg in the class of Clemens Hagen. Named Révélation de l'Adami 2017, she plays regularly at the Centre de musique de chambre de Paris, and received the Grand Prix de l?Académie Ravel.  

The Aerïs Brass Quintet is a group of five professional musicians who combine musical intelligence, stagecraft and virtuosity. All first prizes at the conservatory, their ideal is to introduce the public to a wide range of musical genres. Their rich repertoire highlights the musical qualities of each instrument.

It offers a broad overview of the different musical forms that have been developed to date. The ensemble invites you on a musical journey, tracing the development of the brass family with pedagogy and humour.

The Passions ? Montauban Baroque Orchestra

Created by the recorder player Jean-Marc Andrieu in Toulouse in 1986, The Passions ? Baroque Orchestra of Montauban, is in residence in Montauban. This variable-geometry ensemble specialises in playing period instruments. Its artistic approach reconciles two principles: the respect of ancient playing techniques and the dynamic interpretation of the musical discourse.

Directory

The Passions offer a wide variety of events: small instrumental ensembles, large oratorios, historical performances (An Evening at Riquet's, Musical Evening at Ingres'), sometimes mixing various influences (Mirages of southern soundsTaiwanese music of the 17th century^è and XVIII^è centuries). The orchestra shines in various repertoires: French baroque music (From Paris to Versailles, The Couperin Dynasty), Italian (Vivaldi fioritura), German (The trip to Lübeck, An evening in Potsdam), English (Ayres and Dances). He offers original shows where he likes to combine music with cinema, theatre, literature, dance and even the culinary arts! The Southern French Baroque He has a unique way of exploring the world of music, which is one of his specialities. His rare version of the Stabat Mater by Pergolesi and the Salve Regina by A. Scarlatti with the soprano Magali Léger and the viola Paulin Bündgen enchant the audience at every concert.

Musical collaborations

The orchestra performs alone or with singers, under the direction of its artistic director or invited conductors. It frequently collaborates with vocal ensembles, the Chamber choir Les Eléments (dir. Joël Suhubiette) or the Ch?ur du Capitole de Toulouse (ed. A. Caiani).

From 2003 to 2011He organised a season in Toulouse and invited renowned personalities such as G. Cantagrel, J. Tubéry, S. Kuijken, P. Hantaï, E. Gatti, G. Laurens, I. Poulenard, R. Lislevand, J. Kogan, J.W. Jansen, C. Magraner, L.A. Gonzales?

A regional, national and international reputation

In France he is invited to prestigious events: Lessay, Sablé-sur-Sarthe, Pontoise, Lanvellec, Sylvanès, Odyssud-Blagnac Early Music MeetingConques, Toulouse-les-Orgues, Sorèze, Strasbourg? and the Reunion Island. His premiere concert of Blanchard?s unpublished works at the Radio France Montpellier Festival Occitania in July 2016 was a unanimous success. It was broadcast live on France Musique and on the Union des Radios Européennes network. The Festival de La Chaise-Dieu has received him three times, for its famous triptych dedicated to the composer Jean Gilles. In 2013/2014 J-M. Andrieu and Les Passions shared the stage of the Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse and then the closing of the Pontoise Baroque Festival with the Ch?ur du Capitole for Motets from Versailles by Rameau and Mondonville.

Abroad : received The Passions : Suona francese at the French Embassy in Rome (Palazzo Farnese), Oudemuziek of Utrecht (Netherlands), Música, Historia i Art Valencia (Spain), Música Antigua of Zaragoza? The orchestra has performed in Fez, Murcia, Santander, Bilbao, Alcoy, Amsterdam, Berlin, Rostock, Switzerland, Hungary? The French Embassies, the Alliances Françaises, with the help of the Institut Français, have invited the Passions to Latin America for three tours: in 2014 six concerts in Bolivia and the PeruIn 2016, seven concerts in Bolivia and the Chile, in 2018 six concerts in Bolivia, Chile and Brazil. In 2019 a five-concert tour took place in Mexico.

Since 2011 the orchestra participates in the Festival Passions Baroques in Montauban with J-M. Andrieu as artistic director. 

Discography

The publishing policy of the Passions with the label Ligia leads to the release of one record per year, always successful: Con voce festiva (Scarlatti), Venetian Vespers (Porpora/Vivaldi), Occitan Baroque Christmas with the Sacqueboutiers, Beata is Mariamotets for three male voices by M-A. Charpentier, mostly unpublished. Jean-Marc Andrieu is committed to bringing to light the major works of the Toulouse composer Jean Gilles. They have been published in three successive editions: Requiem (2008), Lamentations (2010), Te Deum, Mass in D (2012), collected in a box set (2013). Concerts and recordings include Les Passions, Les Eléments, Anne Magouët, Vincent Lièvre-Picard, Bruno Boterf, Jean-François Novelli and Alain Buet. FolieS! The first purely instrumental CD highlights J-M. Andrieu?s favourite instrument: the recorder. In 2016 Magnificat at the Chapelle Royale dedicated to the great choir motets by Antoine-Esprit Blanchard, recorded during the concert in Montpellier, in co-production with Radio France, has received the France Musique's choice, 5 Diapasons, 4 Etoiles Classica, Clé du Mois de Resmusica and other rave reviews. In 2018 the following was released The Wind of the Kingdoms, a happy marriage of Western baroque and traditional Eastern music.

The Stabat Mater by Pergolesi and Salve Regina by Scarlatti with Magali Léger and Paulin Bündgen in an unedited, streamlined version is released in September 2019.

The result of a passionate work mainly oriented towards the exploration of pre-baroque and baroque repertoires, the ensemble formed in 2015 brings together four musicians  :  

Alice Duport-Percier (Soprano), Axelle Verner (Mezzo), Barbara Hunninger/Garance Boizot (Violas de Gambe, Bass of Violin) and

Albane Imbs (Plucked strings, Direction).

The Kapsber'girls are looking for a new way of interpreting historical sources. Drawing their inspiration from various traditional repertoires, the four musicians take a cross-sectional look at works from the 17th and 18th centuries, finding new bridges and playing with genres.

Energy and vitality borrowed from "popular" music, colourings in the tones of current music and a feverish desire to find the new in the old are the order of the day.

Their name? It's a nod to one of the most famous Italian composers of the early 17th century: Hieronymus Kapsberger (1580-1651). They put the latter in the spotlight in their first record Che fai tù? (March 2020, Muso) which has won several awards: Diapason d'Or, ffff Télérama, Jocker Discovery Crescendo Magazine (Be.) and is Recording of the Month (July) by MusicWebInternational (UK). 

The Kapsber'girls are regularly provided with research-creation residencies to pursue their artistic work, so they were received at the'Bach Academy (Arques la Bataille) in 2016-17, at the City of the Voice (Vézelay), in 2018, to Sinfonia en Périgord in 2019 and in CCR of Ambronay in May 2021.

Since their creation, they have been heard at several renowned European festivals: London Festival of Baroque Music (Angl.), Brighton?s Festival (English), Bach Academy Festival, Toulouse les Orgues, Fora do Lugar (Portugal), Sinfonia en Périgord, Festival Quatuor du Luberon, Les Nuits de Septembre (Belgium), Mars en Baroque, Festival Radio France?

Their second album dedicated to the French Brunettes of the 18th century has just been released this autumn on the label Alpha Classics and is already receiving enthusiastic reviews from the press (Gramophone, Le Figaro, Stretto.be, Lexnewsand the public! 

The Toulouse Baroque Ensemble is the fruit of a long history of passion, encounters and friendship. This orchestra of professional musicians has come together around the same artistic project: the interpretation of early music, from Monteverdi to Haydn. Depending on the repertoire, it is joined by the Toulouse Baroque Choir, which has been part of the adventure since its creation over ten years ago.

From 4 to 50 musicians perform secular or religious works, with a predilection for the music of J.S. Bach, much of which remains unknown.

By choosing to play on early instruments, and by the stylistic research that this choice imposes, the Toulouse Baroque Ensemble wants to revive early music in all its freshness and intensity, and to share the curiosity and enthusiasm with which it interprets a repertoire that has yet to be discovered. Since its creation, the Toulouse Baroque Ensemble has experienced remarkable development and has taken part in numerous festivals in the Midi-Pyrénées region and throughout France: the international "Toulouse les Orgues" festival, the Lourdes Festival of Sacred Art, the 31 Notes d'Eté festival, the Sylvanès Festival of Sacred Music, the "Eclats de Voix" festival, the Moissac and St-Guilhem le Désert festivals, the Abbey School of Sorèze, and the Belvès festival, etc. Innovative, curious and full of original ideas, Michel Brun combines baroque music with audacity and fantasy, without sacrificing artistic excellence.