Akademie Versailles 2022

Akademie Versailles 2022

International Masterclasses of French Baroque Music

12–17 July 2022
Prague Conservatoire
Na Rejdišti 1, Prague 1 - Old Town

Akademie Versailles is an international educational project aimed at the interpretation of French Baroque music and its period performance practice. The project is organized by Collegium Marianum in collaboration with the Prague Conservatoire, the French Institute in Prague and the Centre de musique baroque de Versailles (CMBV). It is part of a long-term partnership between the Summer Festivities of Early Music in Prague and the CMBV, whose task it is to preserve and promote French Baroque music.

Information for participants

PROGRAM

orchestral suites from Baroque operas:
Jean-Philippe Rameau: Les Indes galantes
Jean-Marie Leclair: Scylla et Glaucus
Marin Marais: Alcione

 

CLASSES: BAROQUE ORCHESTRA
violin, viola, recorder, flauto traverso, oboe, viola da gamba,
cello, theorbo, bassoon, double bass, percussion

 

    • Baroque orchestra
    • expand the knowledge of Baroque style, ornamentation, technique, phrasing and repertoire
    • practical training of the specifics of French baroque music
    • intensive all-day training program
    • specialized thematic lecture
    • final performance by the participants
    • possibility of attendance as an auditor for the duration of the masterclasses

 

The masterclasses are aimed at students of music conservatories and universities, professionals and pedagogues.

The classes are taught through English.
The pitch is 415 Hz (A’).
Sheet music for the study material will be provided by the Centre de musique baroque de Versailles (free of charge).

LECTURERS

Paul Agnew

Paul Agnew

conductor

Paul Agnew | CV

An artist of international renown and an accomplished teacher, British tenor and conductor Paul Agnew has made his mark on all the main international stages as a specialist in the music of the 17th and 18th centuries and as the performer of choice for the high-tenor roles of the French Baroque.

 

After studying at Magdalen College, Oxford, Paul Agnew became the performer of choice for the haute-contre roles of the French Baroque repertoire. He was acclaimed in the major roles of Rameau’s operas (Platée, Les Boréades, Les Indes galantes). He is regularly invited to festivals such as the Edinburgh festival, the BBC Proms or the Lufthansa Festival.

 

He frequently sings with groups such as the Berlin Philharmonic, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Komische Oper Berlin, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the Gabrieli Consort and Players. He appears with conductors such as William Christie, Marc Minkowski, Tom Koopman, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Philippe Herreweghe and Emmanuelle Haïm.

 

In 2007, Paul Agnew’s career took a new turn when he began conducting certain projects for Les Arts Florissants. From 2011 to 2015, he undertook a complete cycle of Monteverdi’s madrigals,
a project for which he directed nearly 100 concerts throughout Europe and made three recordings for Harmonia Mundi the first of which won the Gramophone Award in 2016.

 

He has conducted Les Arts Florissants in such productions as the ballet Doux Mensonges (Opéra de Paris), a new production of Rameau’s Platée (Theater an der Wien, Paris’s Opéra Comique and New York’s Lincoln Center), and created a new production of L’Orfeo as part of the celebration of Claudio Monteverdi’s 450th anniversary – not to mention many concert programs.

 

He is artistic director of the Festival de Printemps – Les Arts Florissants which takes place in churches throughout the region of the Vendée, since its creation in 2017.

 

Since 2019, Paul Agnew is Musical Co-Director of Les Arts Florissants. As a guest conductor, Paul Agnew regularly conducts orchestras such as the Staatsphilharmonie Nürnberg, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, the Houston Symphony Orchestra, the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and the Akademie fur Alte Musik Berlin.

 

Recent highlights also include a new production of Platée staged by Rolando Villazón at the Semperoper Dresden, and a new reading of Gesualdo’s six books of madrigals with Les Arts Florissants also recorded by Harmonia Mundi, the first volume of which won the Gramophone Award in 2020.

Lenka Torgersen <br> © Petra Hajská

Lenka Torgersen

concertmaster, string section

Lenka Torgersen | CV

Lenka Torgersen studied violin at the Pilsen Conservatory and subsequently at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague under Václav Snítil. After graduating in 1998 she focused intensively on Baroque violin and honed her skills from 1999 to 2003 at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis under the tutelage of Chiara Banchini.

 

From 1999 to 2012 she was concertmaster of Collegium 1704. Currently concertmaster of Collegium Marianum, she also works regularly with other Czech and international ensembles including La Cetra Barockorchester Basel, Ensemble 415, Freitagsakademie Bern, conSequenza, Ensemble Inégal, Les Traversées Baroques, Orchester der J. S. Bach-Stiftung St. Gallen, and Ensemble Tourbillon.

 

As a chamber musician and soloist she performs at major music festivals (such as the Prague Spring, Festival d’Ambronay, Festival de Sablé, Festival La Chaise-Dieu, MA Festival Brugge, Festival Oude Muziek Utrecht, Innsbrucker Festwochen der Alten Musik, Festival del Camino de Santiago and Festival Santander), and also collaborates with various leading figures in early music including Chiara Banchini, Gustav Leonhardt, René Jacobs, Andrea Marcon, Jordi Savall, Andrew Parrott, and Attilio Cremonesi.

 

She has recorded for renowned international labels such as Harmonia Mundi, Accent, Zig-Zag Territoires, and Pan Classics. In 2010 as a soloist with Collegium 1704 she recorded the instrumental works of Antonín Reichenauer, for which she received the Diapason d’Or award. In 2013 she recorded on the Supraphon label a solo CD entitled “Il Violino Boemo”, a modern-day premiere reviving the sonatas of the 18th century Czech violin virtuosi František Benda, Josef Antonín Gurecký, and František Jiránek. This recording also garnered enthusiastic reviews from both Czech and foreign critics.

 

She has been invited regularly by Janáček Academy of Performing Arts in Brno as tutor of Baroque violin and early-music performance.

Akademie Versailles 2022

Akademie Versailles 2022 | Final performance

Organised by
Collegium Marianum – Týnská škola
as an additional program of Summer Festivities of Early Music

international music festival 2022