The English bass, Paul Willenbrock, began to his singing carreer as a member of the Chapels Royal in London. Then he sang as baas in the Trinity College Choir of Cambridge, where he studied German and French literature. He moved to Paris and continued his learning in ensembles specialized in early music such La Chapelle Royale (Director: Philippe Herreweghe), Collegium Vocale Gent (Director: Philippe Herreweghe), Les Arts Florissants (Director: William Christie), Akademia Ensemble (Director: Françoise Lasserre), Organum...
Paul Willenbrock has performed a soloist and concertits with many renowned ensembles throughout Europe, such as Daedalus and Lucidarium (Switzerland), Capella Regia and Musica Florea (Director: Marek Štryncl) (Prague), Balthasar-Neumann-Chor (Director: Thomas Hengelbrock) (Freiburg), The Harp Consort, Trinity Baroque (UK), Battalia (Finland), Ensemble William Byrd, A Sei Voci, Ensemble Gilles Binchois, among others in France./ In same time he always took great pleasure in work with young singers, including with the Maîtrise de Caen, where he grew up several "generations" of singers since 1989, and more recently with the Maîtrise de Notre Dame de Paris, where he sings with his own son.
His passion for unusual repertoire prompted Paul Willenbrock to create Tre Bassi, with Alain Buet and Philippe Roche, to explore the music specifically written for three bass voices, from the Middle Ages to the present. Their first CD "De Profundis Ad Stellam,, award winning in Germany, is a collaboration with the serpentiste and jazzman Michel Godard, Lee Santana (theorbo) and Hille Perl (viola da amba) in a program juxtaposing 17th century treasures with works written for this original formation by Michel Godard and Lee Santana.
Paul Willenbrock is also interested in the historical pronunciation of different languages that h speaks, paying particular attention to his native language, English; many rhymes of Shakespeare and his contemporaries rhyme that if we employs restored but still alive pronunciation, being composed of sounds that can be heard even today in many parts of England |