Sebastien Daucé

It was during his training at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Lyon that he met the future members of Correspondances. Key influences among his teachers there were Françoise Lengellé and Yves Rechsteiner. Initially in demand as a continuo player and vocal répétiteur (with the Pygmalion ensemble, the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, and the Maîtrise and Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France among others), he formed the ensemble Correspondances in Lyon in 2009, assembling around him singers and instrumentalists with a passion for the French sacred repertory of the Grand Siècle.

With the ensemble, which he directs from the harpsichord or the organ, he travels throughout France and the world, and frequently records for radio. Sébastien Daucé and the ensemble Correspondances are in residence at the Caen theater, with whom they are developing their first stage projects (Histoires sacrées directed by Vincent Huguet in 2016, Le Ballet Royal de la Nuit directed by Francesca Lattuada in November 2017 and to be revived in the fall of 2020), and associated with the Opera and the Chapel of the Château de Versailles, the Louvre Museum, and the Aquarium Theater at the Cartoucherie.

Japan, Colombia, the United States, and China are all milestones in the ensemble’s career, along with regular collaborations in Europe (England, Germany, Benelux, the Netherlands, Italy, Poland). Its exploration of a little-played repertoire, often unpublished, has resulted, with the support of the harmonia mundi label, a pioneer in many respects in the baroque repertoire, in a discography of fourteen recordings noticed by the critics: Diapason d’or de l’année, ffff de Télérama, Editor’s Choice de Gramophone, Choc de l’année de Classica, IRR Oustanding…

Correspondances now enjoys international recognition: at the ECHO Preis ceremony in the Berlin Konzerthaus in 2016, it won the award categories of Best World Premiere Recording (for Le Concert Royal de la Nuit) and Best Young Conductor of the Year, while the Australian Limelight magazine named it Operatic Recording of 2016 for Le Concert Royal de la Nuit.

Alongside his activities as a performing musician, Sébastien Daucé works with the leading scholars of seventeenth-century music, publishing regular articles and taking part in important performance practice projects. Passionately interested in questions of musical style, he edits the music that makes up the ensemble’s repertory, going so far as to recompose complete pieces when necessary, as was the case in Le Ballet Royal de la Nuit. He has taught at the Pôle Supérieur de Paris since 2012. In 2018 he was guest artistic director of the London Festival of Baroque Music. Sébastien Daucé is also an associate artist of the Royaumont Foundation.