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The French choral conductor, Olivier Schneebeli, is Director of Les Pages and Les Chantres du Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles (les Chantres de la Chapelle, the choir of the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles). He has has played a central role in the “rediscovery” of French works from the 17th and 18th centuries. Prior to joining the Centre in 1991, he and William Christie founded the choir of Les Arts Florissants for the modern debut of Lully's Atys.
Olivier Schneebeli and L’Ensemble Contrepoint, which he directs, recently received several honors, including the Diapason d'Or, for a critically acclaimed CD of Motets and Scènes Sacrées by Bouzignac. Under his direction, Les Pages and Les Chantres du Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles has performed and recorded works by Du Mont, Rameau, and Clérambault, and has collaborated and recorded with distinguished conductors such as William Christie, Jean-Claude Malgoire, Gustav Leonhardt, and Ton Koopman.
In recognition of the choir's efforts to familiarize the public with early French music, in 1997 Les Pages and les Chantres de la Chapelle received the Liliane Bettencourt Prize for Choral Singing, given by the Académie des Beaux-Arts. Olivier Schneebeli is working to recreate a large French Baroque choir with the goal of interpreting the sacred works of the Versailles repertoire and reviving the largely unknown repertoire of the Maîtrises of the French cathedrals in the 17th and 18th centuries. He has extensive experience training young singers in French Baroque style. |
