Choir and Orchestra - Rameau, Mozart, Mondonville, Rigel

William Christie returns to Mozart and his stay in Paris during 1778

T he vocal and instrumental ensemble Les Arts Florissants is one of the most renowned and respected early music groups in Europe and around the world. Dedicated to the performance of Baroque music on original instruments, the ensemble was founded in 1979 by the Franco-American harpsichordist and conductor William Christie, and takes its name from a short opera by Marc-Antoine Charpentier. Les Arts Florissants have been largely responsible for the resurgence of interest in France in 17th-century French repertoire as well as in European music of the 17th and 18th centuries more generally. This repertoire which had, for the most part, been neglected (much of it unearthed from collections in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France) but which is now widely performed and admired.

William Christie

Harpsichordist, conductor, musicologist and teacher, is the inspiration behind one of the most exciting musical adventures of the last twenty-five years. His pioneering work has led to a renewed appreciation of Baroque music in France , notably of 17th- and 18th-century French repertoire, which he has introduced to a very wide audience.

Born in Buffalo ( New York State ), William Christie studied at Harvard and Yale Universities , and has lived in France since 1971. The major turning point in his career came in 1979 when he founded Les Arts Florissants. As Director of this vocal and instrumental ensemble, Christie soon made his mark as a musician and a man of the theatre, in both the concert hall and the opera house, with new interpretations of largely neglected or forgotten repertoire