Friends of Music - Le Consort
New Orleans Friends of Music has been bringing the finest chamber musicians in the world to our community since 1955. In addition to a full season of public concerts at Dixon Hall, in partnership with Tulane University, NOFOM provides training and music education activities for both artists and audiences.
A volunteer-led organization, NOFOM supports the full range of chamber music repertoire through performances and commissions, curates educational activities that encourage all ages to appreciate the art form, and showcases exceptional emerging chamber musicians.
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Le Consort, formed in Paris in 2015, is dedicated to baroque music, and more particularly to the genre of the trio sonata. Since our beginnings, it is a repertoire that we have worked intensely, played, recorded and that we interpret with enthusiasm, sincerity and modernity. Quintessence of chamber music in the Baroque period, we try to bring to this genre a personal, dynamic and colorful interpretation. Made up of two violins, a cello and a harpsichord, Le Consort has already developed numerous projects and collaborations and is considered "one of the major players on the French baroque scene" (Diapason, October 2019).
In June 2017, we won the First Prize and the Audience Prize at the Loire Valley International Competition, chaired by William Christie. Since then, we have played in many venues in France and Europe (Auditorium de Radio France, Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, Auditori de Barcelona, Festival de la Roque d'Anthéron, etc.). The Consort is in residence at the Royaumont Foundation, the Banque de France and the Singer-Polignac Foundation.
Our repertoire includes works by composers such as Corelli, Vivaldi, Couperin, Purcell... but also composers who have remained unknown and whom we strive to rediscover and make known. Honoring these original composers is one of the artistic signatures of our ensemble. Jean-François Dandrieu, Louis-Antoine Lefevre and Giovanni Battista Reali are three composers we recorded for the first time (respectively on the albums Opus 1, Venez chère ombre and Specchio Veneziano). For our next projects, we already have some ideas: Nicola Matteis Junior, Ravenscroft, Exaudet, Lamolinari, Gentili... so many composers to whom we will devote ourselves in the years to come.
The trio sonata was the king genre in the Baroque era, and we believe it deserves a dedicated band to do it justice. Very few ensembles perform this repertoire despite the immense amount of music written for this formation. Indeed, the trio sonata can be compared to the string quartet of the classical and romantic eras: from 1600 to 1800, it was the most popular genre of chamber music.
The rise of our solo careers led Le Consort to develop and flourish in more important forms, for violin concertos or opera projects. Backed by our vast experience in chamber music, this change of staff is very fluid: our chamber musical reflexes radiate the rest of the orchestra, and the cohesion that we have always had with four musicians wins over entire workforce.
