Presentation

Founded in Lyon in 2009, Correspondances brings together under the direction of the harpsichordist and organist Sébastien Daucé a group of singers and instrumentalists, all of whom are specialists in baroque music. In a few short years of existence, Correspondances has become a benchmark ensemble in the seventeenth-century French repertory. Placing itself under the auspices of Baudelaire’s notion of correspondences between the arts, it performs music whose sonorities can still directly touch today’s listeners while presenting staged productions of rarer and more original forms. 

The rediscovery of previously unpublished works, and the expression of a style as close as possible to the 17th century’s, is at the core of the ensemble’s project. Its long-term research programs have led to moving events, such as the monumental reconstruction of the Coronation of Louis XIV, or of the music of the Ballet Royal de la Nuit, thus allowing us to rediscover a major musical moment of the 17th century, which inaugurated the reign of the Sun King. 

The ensemble’s commitment to breathe new life into already well-known composers and restoring the image of figures less familiar today but celebrated and frequently performed in their own time has already yielded nineteen critically acclaimed recordings, which have earned national and international distinctions. Among them: Litanies de la Vierge (2013), Pastorale de Noël (2016), Histoires Sacrées (2019), Messe de Minuit (2023) by the ensemble’s favorite composer, Marc-Antoine Charpentier ; Grands motets by Henry du Mont (2016) and Michel-Richard de Lalande (2022); Perpetual Night, debut album by soloist Lucile Richardot (2018); or Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu Nostri (2021), Matthew Locke’s Psyche (2022) and André Campra : Requiem Mass & The Masters of Notre-Dame (2024).  

In the same momentum of rediscovering the lyrical scene that preceded the opera, Correspondances is keen to revive French or foreign scenic forms such as the ballet de cour, the “sacred story”, the semi-opera or the mask. In 2017, Le Ballet royal de la nuit was created at the théâtre de Caen, a grandiose, magical and contemporary show imagined by choreographer Francesca Lattuada. The ensemble continues its exploration of the experimental formats that marked the Grand Siècle with staged productions as Songs directed by Samuel Achache, for the voice of Lucile Richardot, or the mask Cupid & Death created in 2021 at the théâtre de Caen, an eccentric entertainment in an upside down world shaped by Jos Houben and Emily Wilson. For the first time in 2021, Correspondances was premiered at the Festival d’art lyrique d’Aix-en-Provence with Combattimento, the black swan theory, a creation about masterpieces of Monteverdi and Italian composers from the 17th Century staged by Silvia Costa. In 2023, Correspondances premiered David et Jonathas at the Théâtre de Caen, directed by Jean Bellorini, reviving the hybrid form in which opera and theater were intimately linked. 

Off the beaten track, Correspondances brings polyphony and lyrical to places where they are not expected. Since 2020, the ensemble has been cycling the roads every summer, bringing baroque music at the heart of Normandy. A musical adventure for all ages. 

In 2023, the ensemble honored its favourite composer, Marc-Antoine Charpentier, with its first edition of Les Heures Musicales de la Sainte-Chapelle de Paris, in collaboration with the Centre des monuments nationaux, renewed for a second edition in October 2024.  

Correspondances is the 2024 winner of the Liliane Bettencourt Prize for choral singing awarded by the Bettencourt Schueller Foundation, in partnership with the Académie des beaux-arts. 

Correspondances is in residence at the theater of Caen. It receives the support of la vie brève – Théâtre de l’Aquarium for its creation residency.  

Correspondances is supported by the Ministry of Culture – DRAC Normandie, the Normandy Region, the Calvados department, the City and the Theater of Caen.  

The ensemble is assisted by the Correspondances Foundation, which brings together music lovers active in supporting research, publishing and interpretation of 17th Century music.  

It receives regular support from the Calvados department, the French Institute, the ODIA Normandie and the Centre National de la Musique for its concert, export and recording activities. 

The Ensemble Correspondances is a member of Arviva – Arts vivants, Arts durables, and is committed to the environmental transition of performing arts. The ensemble is a member of FEVIS, Profedim and the European Early Music Network. 

The Ensemble Correspondances is the 2024 winner of the Liliane Bettencourt Prize for choral singing from the Bettencourt Schueller Foundation.   

The Société Générale Foundation is a patron of the Ensemble Correspondances.