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 is a unique chamber music ensemble bringing together four young musicians who interpret the trio sonata repertoire with enthusiasm, sincerity, and modernity. From Corelli to Vivaldi, from Purcell to Couperin, the dialogue between the two violins and the basso continuo displays rich contrasts between vocal qualities, sensuality, and virtuosity.
Le Consort takes possession of the genre, which represents the quintessence of Baroque chamber music, and gives it personal, dynamic, and colourful interpretations. For this coming season, Le Consort will be in residence at la Banque de France as well as at l’Abbaye de Royaumont.
In June 2017, Le Consort won First Prize and the Audience Prize at the Loire Valley International Early Music Competition, whose jury president is William Christie. The ensemble has played in Paris (Salle Cortot, the Louvre Auditorium), at the Dijon Opera, at the Easter Festival in Deauville, at the Arsenal in Metz, at the MA Festival in Bruges, at the Sablé Festival, at the Pau Casals Foundation, at deSingel in Antwerp, at the Misteria Paschalia Festival in Kraków, among many other venues.
The ensemble has also often been featured on the France 3 television network, as well as on the France Musique and Radio Classique national radio stations. Le Consort works regularly with internationally famous musicians such as William Christie, Mathias Vidal, and Véronique Gens. The ensemble is in residency at the Singer-Polignac Foundation.
From the outset, the musicians of Le Consort fell head over heels for Jean-François Dandrieu’s unrecorded sonatas, which offer an extraordinary variety of sentiments. The ensemble’s disc Opus 1 (awarded a “Diapason d’or” de l'année) offers the entire set of them for the first time. Le Consort also relishes the vocal repertoire and works closely with the mezzo-soprano Eva Zaïcik.
This collaboration led the young musicians to the recording of two albums : VENEZ CHERE OMBRE, dedicated to Montéclair, Clérambault and Lefèvre’s French cantatas (January 2019); and ROYAL HANDEL, an immersion in the London opera with arias from Handel, Ariosti and Bononcini (January 2021). Their latest recording, SPECCHIO VENEZIANO, is a mirror presentation between Vivaldi and the forgotten composer Reali’s trio sonatas.
Le Consort is supported by the Mécénat Musical Société Générale sponsorship.
