Les Musiciens de Saint-Julien, François Lazarevitch, Lucile Boulanger, Éric Bellocq
Biography Les Musiciens de Saint-Julien, François Lazarevitch, Lucile Boulanger, Éric Bellocq
Lucile Boulanger
had her first viola da gamba lessons at the age of five with Christine Plubeau, before continuing her studies with Ariane Maurette and later with Jérôme Hantaï. After further studies in Paris and Cergy she was accepted for Christophe Coin’s class at the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et de danse de Paris, where she was awarded a diploma with distinction in 2009.
She has been a prize-winner at several international competitions including the International Viola da gamba Competition Bach–Abel in Köthen, the Società Umanitaria di Milano and Musica Antiqua Bruges.
Much sought-after as a chamber music partner, she has performed with numerous soloists and ensembles including Philippe Pierlot, François Lazarevitch (Les Musiciens de Saint Julien), Christophe Rousset, Alexis Kossenko and Hugo Reyne, and has also played with larger ensembles such as Ensemble Correspondances (Sebastien Daucé), Les Talens Lyriques (Christophe Rousset) and Pygmalion (Raphael Pichon).
Another focus is her involvement with several consorts, in particular the Ricercar Consort (P. Pierlot), L’Achéron (F. Joubert-Caillet) and Musicall Humors (J. Léonard).
She also regularly gives recitals. Her two duo CDs with the fortepianist and harpsichordist Arnaud De Pasquale on the Alpha label (a Bach recording in 2012, followed by an album of C.P.E. Bach and Graun in 2015) have received several awards in France: the Diapason découverte, Choc Classica, Coup de Cœur Charles Cros, ffff Télérama…
At the end of 2018 her debut CD on the Harmonia Mundi label was released with works by Forqueray.
Les Musiciens de Saint-Julien
Inspired by the intimate conviction of their founder, flautist and pioneering researcher François Lazarevitch, Les Musiciens de Saint-Julien have been evolving since 2006 as free spirits on the paths of the Baroque, matching up oral and written sources. Their shared affinities with traditional repertoires and musicians enriched their earliest projects and echœd a whole scholarly archipelago of early and Baroque music – the same inventive feeling for colours, the same energy springing from danced movement, the same pœtic sensibility. Les Musiciens de Saint-Julien awaken slumbering musical collections – but not solely – in an approach both erudite and intuitive, rooted in folk practices and filtered through a demanding, virtuosic and passionate appropriation.
Everything in this alchemy is unique and identifies the ensemble even more than the reference to the brotherhood of violinist-dancers that gave it its name: the relief and elegance of the lines, the flexibility of the swaying phrasings, the richness of a rare early instrumentarium in which flutes and bagpipes stand out, the inner fire electrifying even the best-known works of Bach or Vivaldi, the naturalness of expression, which makes every interpretation so familiar yet so new.
In the course of concerts in France, tours in Europe and America, – performing soon in France at Le Volcan, scène nationale du Havre, at the Salle Gaveau, at the Philharmonie de Paris, the Atelier Lyrique de Tourcoing, at the Folle journée de Varsovie, the Folle journée de Nantes, at the festivals Via Aeterna (France), Musikfestspiele Potsdam Sanssouci (Germany), Musik + (Austria), Été Moisan (Belgium), Actus Humanus (Poland), at the Bach Festival of Montréal (Canada)… – and heighteen recordings on the Alpha Classics label, Les Musiciens de Saint-Julien have reinforced a strong presence on the French and international scenes, unanimously praised by the public and specialised press alike.
Eric Bellocq
It was while finishing his study of guitar in 1983 with Alexandre Lagoya at the Paris Conservatory (where he now teaches) that Eric Bellocq received his first initiation to basso continuo and started to work in William Christie's baroque group, " Les Arts Florissants", which he subsequently left in 1990.
From 1991, he has been playing mainly renaissance lute with the ensemble "Clément Janequin", directed by Dominique Visse.
Since 2000, with the show "Le Chant des Balles", a duo with a juggler Vincent de Lavenère, he has been able to resume production of his own musical works, while remaining faithful to the early music styles.
Apart from participating in a large number of discs with various orchestras and groups, a few duet and solo recordings have been released by Naxos, Kings Records (Japan) and Frame (Italy).
In 2009, his research on J. S. Bach's works for lute took a concrete form by virtue of an innovative new tuning for the instrument. Important European festivals such as AMUZ (Antwerp) or Festival de Saintes gave audience an opportunity to listen to the suites BWV 996, 997 and 998, which were rarely performed in live concert.
Francois Lazarevitch
Although his primary instrument is the flute, from the outset, François Lazarevitch has concentrated his apprenticeships, research and musical practices on the diversity of sources, oral and written, which he deems necessary for recreating the early and Baroque repertoires today. Backed, since 2006, by the companionship of his Musiciens de Saint-Julien, to whom he passes on his craving for going ever further in comprehension, his taste for the discovery of forgotten repertoires and experimental curiosity about all cultures, he takes a singular new look at a whole chapter of our musical history.
The driving force? Rhythm, this impulse born of dance and which calls more on what is felt than on what is written on paper and which must imbue all music with flexibility and in awareness. This is why his recording of Bach’s Flute Sonatas (Alpha Classics, 2014, ‘Choc’ Classica) surprises and charms with the eloquence, invention and refinement of his art of phrasing and ornamentation.
It must be said that while François Lazarevitch tackles early music and the flute with pioneers such as Antoine Geoffroy-Dechaume, Barthold Kuijken and Pierre Séchet, he also approaches Indian music, has a passion for the Irish flute, and practices music of oral tradition with those who still perpetuate it locally. These fruitful encounters and explorations open up his own path, uncharted and demanding, which he travels, adding strings to his bow: today, he divides his time between the flute and the musette with equal virtuosity, the pastoral timbre having become emblematic of Les Musiciens de Saint-Julien.
Artistic director of the ensemble, he conducts it on the French and international music scenes, recording innovative programmes for Alpha Classics, which are regularly acclaimed. He also enriches his experience through collaborations with Les Arts Florissants, Le Concert d’Astrée, Les Talens Lyriques, dancers and choreographers, stage directors and composers of today. An impassioned instrument collector and researcher, he publishes scores of unearthed repertoires.
Finally, he teaches Baroque flute and musette at the Versailles Conservatory, eager to pass on what drives him: ‘the freedom of breath in the service of listening, understanding and energy’.
