Les Musiciens de Mademoiselle de Guise
Les Musiciens de Mademoiselle de Guise who play on period instruments have for vocation to make live, discover, and to pass on the immense heritage of early music in the cultural context of today. The name of the group refers to Marie de Lorraine, Duchesse de Guise, who during Louis XIV time was a sponsor of talented musicians, including Marc Antoine Charpentier, to challenge the hegemony of Lully. Created in 1996 by Laurence Pottier the group is situated in Paris region. Its members are, according to the projects, from 3 to 40 musicians. The children of the “Petit choeur de Guise “, managed by Aline Behar, have joined the instrumentalists to record 4 CD’s of early music with songs for children for Bayard label.
Both instrument player (recorder and viola da gamba) and musicologist, Laurence Pottier graduated in 1989 with a Master’s degree at the Sorbonne on “The recorder in Italy during the 16th century”, then in 1993 with a Ph.D about “The repertory for the recorder in France during the baroque period”. Since 1996, she heads the ensemble of early music Les Musiciens de Mademoiselle de Guise for which she made arrangements, conducted and recorded four CD of traditional Chansons sung by children. She also conducts Athenaïs, a group of six female singers with basso continuo, to explore the repertoire of French Petit Motet. They have recorded 3 CD’s at Bayard label. She teaches recorder, ensemble music and initiation to early music for singers at the Conservatoire of the 9th district in Paris. She regularly conducts recorder workshops in France and in Brazil.
Philippe Allain-Dupré was born in 1956 in Brittany (France) and his first musical interest was to Celtic music. He studied historical flutes with Barthold Kuijken at the Brussels Conservatoire Royal where he graduated Hoger diploma in 1987. He teaches at Paris CMA9 Conservatoire. He is regularly invited to perform with “Le Concert Spirituel” conducted by Hervé Niquet. In 2016 and 2017 he taught early flute at Croatia flute academy, Karlovac. His complete recording of Hotteterre suites with the collaboration of Laurence Pottier (Naxos 8.553707 and 8) were praised by critics. He has also recorded, on the Renaissance flute, works by Attaingnant, Praetorius and Van Eyck for the Ricercar Company.
Maria Lucia Barros first became acquainted with the harpsichord in Marcelo Fagerlande’s classes at Rio de Janeiro University. Upon arriving in France, she studied with Elisabeth Joyé and participated in interpretation workshops with Pierre Hantaï. She studied Musicology at Paris IV Sorbonne University between 1988 and 2001, under the direction of Pierre Guillot. Maria Lucia Barros collaborates with Florentino Calvo (mandolin). In 2012, they created Duo Spirituoso and produced their first recording (La Mandoline Baroque) with Pierre Verany (PV 712061) on the basis of musical manuscripts in the archives of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. At present, Maria Lucia Barros is a harpsichord professor at Association Entr’acte in the 7th district in Paris and at the Sartrouville Municipal School of the Arts. At the same time, she is continuing and broadening her research, leading her to discover other repertories and other periods of music.