After studying music and choral and orchestral conducting in Paris, Vienna, London and Stockholm, Laurence Equilbey founded accentus in 1991, at the age of twenty-nine. Eleven years later, when accentus had already become a widely recognised professional ensemble, she decided to react to one of the key obstacles to the professionalisation of singers in France: the absence of a training structure for young singers aged between sixteen and twenty-four. She therefore created the first training centre for these young singers, a department of the Conservatoire National de Région de Paris, Le Jeune Choeur de Paris. In 2004, along with accentus, she initiated the tenso programme, which brings together the finest European vocal ensembles for the purpose of research into and development of vocal art. Finally, in 2007, she designed an electronic pitching system, the e-tuner, a major innovation which enables singers immediately to find any note, including micro-intervals.

She is regularly invited to conduct such orchestras as the Orchestre de l'Opéra de Rouen, Sinfonia Varsovia, Akademie fŸr alte Musik, Orchestre National d'Île-de-France, Orchestre de Cannes-Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Orchestre National de Lyon, and Brussels Philharmonic. In the 2007-08 season, she conducted the musicians of the Orchestre National de France in Fauré's Requiem and Dusapin's Dona eis. Laurence Equilbey is also active in the operatic repertoire (Rossini's La Cenerentola, Dusapin's Medeamaterial, Falla's El retablo de maese Pedro, and Britten's Albert Herring at the Opéra- Comique in Paris and the Opéra de Rouen in 2009), and in contemporary music. She works with eminent operatic artists, including Sandrine Piau and Laurent Naouri, and appears regularly with such instrumentalists as Sonia Wieder-Atherton, Boris Berezovsky, Brigitte Engerer, and Alain Planès. She is an associate artist at the Grand Théâtre in Aix-en-Provence. She was voted Musical Personality of the Year 2000 by the Syndicat Professionnel de la Critique Dramatique et Musicale (French critics' circle) and in 2003 won the Grand Prix of the International Music Press. In 2006 Cultures France awarded her its passport ÔCréateur sans frontières' for classical and contemporary music.

After initially making her reputation in Baroque music alongside William Christie, Philippe Herreweghe, Christophe Rousset, Emmanuelle Haïm, Sigiswald Kuijken, Gustav Leonhardt and René Jacobs, Sandrine Piau now sings a broad repertoire reflected in her large discography, and has confirmed her outstanding position in the new generation of French singers. On the operatic stage she alternates roles in Baroque, Classical and later music: L'incoronazione di Poppea, Serse, Tamerlano, Arianna, Giulio Cesare, Gluck, Mozart (Servilia, Pamina, Konstanze, Ismene),Weber (€nnchen), Berlioz (Hero), Verdi (Nannetta), Massenet (Sophie), Britten (Tytania), Offenbach (Wanda/La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein), Prokofiev (Ninette/L'Amour des trois oranges),Pelléas et Mélisande. In concert she has sung L'Enfant et les sortilèges (Myung-Whun Chung), Die Schöpfung (Daniel Harding), Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher (Kurt Masur/Berlin Philharmonie), A Midsummer Night's Dream (recorded with Philippe Herreweghe), Elias (Michel Corboz/Teatro Col—n), and Mozart's C minor Mass (Salzburg Festival). She made a notable New York debut at Lincoln Center with the Freiburger Barockorchester. Her recital partners include Corine Durous, Alexandre Tharaud, Christian Ivaldi, Georges Pludermacher, Susan Manoff, Myung-Whun Chung, and Jos van Immerseel. With the last-named she recorded a recital of Debussy songs (winner of the Prix Ravel at the Orphées Lyriques), following a first solo CD of Mozart opera arias with the Freiburger Barockorchester that won the Prix de l'Académie Charles Cros. Her Handel album with Christophe Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques was Editor's Choice in Gramophone and was awarded the Stanley Sadie Handel Recording Prize for 2005. In 2007 she released another recital CD, évocation, accompanied by Susan Manoff. She was appointed Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et Lettres in 2006.

After studying at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Lyon, Stéphane Degout joined the Atelier Lyrique of the Opéra de Lyon. He immediately established himself on the international scene with his triumphant debut in the role of Papageno at the Aix-en-Provence Festival in 1999. Since then he has appeared at the Opéra National de Paris (La Bohème, Die Zauberflöte, Ariadne auf Naxos), the Berlin Staatsoper (L'Orfeo), the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels (L'Orfeo, Cosi fan tutte), the Theater an der Wien (L'Orfeo), and the Metropolitan Opera (Roméo et Juliette). He made his debut at the Salzburg Festival in Cos“ fan tutte in 2006, and at the Glyndebourne Festival in the same work the following year.

Stéphane Degout enjoys an equally high reputation in concert, and has sung with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and the Orchestre National de France. He appears regularly in recital, and made his American debut at Lincoln Center in New York in 2004. During the 2007 season, Stéphane Degout made his first appearances at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (La Cenerentola), and was invited back to the Metropolitan Opera (Roméo et Juliette, Die Zauberflöte) and the Opéra National de Paris (Iphigénie en Tauride, Le nozze di Figaro). He also sang the title role in Pelléas et Mélisande for the first time, in a new production at La Monnaie, and gave recitals at Lincoln Center and the Wigmore Hall. Stéphane Degout has recorded Werther and Cos“ fan tutte (Patrice Chéreau's production for the Aix-en- Provence Festival) on DVD.

The Maîtrise de Paris forms a department of the Conservatoire National de Région de Paris. This mixed children's choir recruits members from the age of eight and offers them an all-round musical education (solo and choral singing, theory, voice technique, instrumental training). The Maîtrise appears regularly with leading conductors and orchestras in France and abroad. In 1999 it won the Liliane Bettencourt Prize for choral singing awarded by the Académie des Beaux-Arts. In 2002 the choir recorded the first volume of Chansons de France, which received the Coup de Coeur award from the Académie Charles Cros.

La Maîtrise de Paris is an association Loi 1901, subsidised by the City of Paris and DRAC Île-de- France. It also receives support from the Fondation Sagem and the Fondation Bettencourt-Schueller.

members of l'orchestre national de france

The orchestra on this recording is made up of fifty-six musicians, most of them from the Orchestre National de France. This orchestra, heir to the performing tradition of French music under the aegis of Radio France, was founded in 1934 and has worked ever since with the world's finest conductors. It was directed by Kurt Masur from 2002, and its music director is now Daniele Gatti. It divides its seasons between concerts in Paris and foreign tours, premieres of major works of our time and reinterpretation of the repertoire. Its extensive discography reflects its involvement on the musical scene and its extremely wide repertoire, both symphonic and operatic..

Founded by Laurence Equilbey for the purpose of performing the major works of the a cappella repertoire and engaging with contemporary creation, accentus is today a professional ensemble which appears in the leading concert halls and festivals in France and abroad. The choir collaborates regularly with prestigious conductors and orchestras (Pierre Boulez, Jonathan Nott, Christoph Eschenbach, Orchestre de Paris, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Orchestre de l'Opéra de Rouen/Haute Normandie, Concerto Köln, Akademie fŸr Alte Musik). It has participated in a variety of operatic productions ranging from contemporary premieres (Pascal Dusapin's Perelˆ, uomo di fumo and Matthias Pintscher's L'Espace dernier at the Paris Opéra) to the standard repertoire (Il barbiere di Siviglia at the Aix-en-Provence Festival). The ensemble is also a privileged partner of the Cité de la Musique in Paris, and enjoys an ongoing residence at the Opéra de Rouen/Haute Normandie.

Each of its recordings has received numerous prizes from the musical press. The CD Transcriptions was a Grammy Award nominee in 2004 and became a Gold Disc in January 2008. Its Schoenberg recording with the Ensemble Intercontemporain, released in 2005, received a Midem Classical Award in 2006. Haydn's Seven Last Words of Christ on the Cross with the Akademie fŸr Alte Musik Berlin, released in 2006, is already considered a benchmark version. January 2008 saw the DVD release of accentus's first film, Transcriptions, directed by Andy Sommer. The release in March 2008 of a recording of the previously unpublished version of Dvor‡k's Stabat Mater has already won plaudits in the press. Critically acclaimed ever since its first recording, accentus was awarded the Liliane Bettencourt Prize of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in 1995. The group received the Grand Prix Radio Classique de la Découverte in 2001 and was voted Ensemble of the Year in the Victoires de la Musique Classique in 2002, 2005 and 2008. It is the first ensemble to use the electronic tuning system e-tuner.

accentus receives aid from the Direction Régionale des Affaires Culturelles d'Île-de-France of the French Ministry of Culture and Communication. accentus is in residence at the Opéra de Rouen/Haute- Normandie. It is subsidised by the City of Paris and the Île-de-France Region, and also receives support from SACEM. accentus is a member of the European network tenso and of FEVIS (Fédération des Ensembles Vocaux et Instrumentaux Spécialisés). accentus is equipped with electronic e-tuners thanks to the support of the Fondation Orange. The cercle des mécènes d'accentus accompanies the ensemble's development. Mécénat Musical Société Générale is the principal patron of accentus.