Les Talens Lyriques at Colburn School's Zipper Hall

From: Avignon, France. LA Opera: From Light to Darkness concert (2018); The Sound of Music in Versailles concert (2024) Founder of the ensemble Les Talens Lyriques and an internationally acclaimed harpsichordist, Christophe Rousset is a musician and conductor inspired by his passion for opera and the rediscovery of Europe's musical heritage. Studying the harpsichord at the Schola Cantorum in Paris with Huguette Dreyfus, then at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague with Bob van Asperen (at the age of 22 he won the prestigious first prize at the 7th Bruges Harpsichord Competition), followed by the creation of his own ensemble, Les Talens Lyriques, in 1991, gave Christophe Rousset a perfect grasp of the richness and diversity of the Baroque, Classical and pre-romantic repertoires.

The ensemble Les Talens Lyriques, which takes its name from the subtitle of Rameau's opera Les Fêtes d’Hébé (1739), was founded in 1991 by the harpsichordist and conductor Christophe Rousset. Championing a wide lyrical and instrumental repertoire that spans from early Baroque to early Romanticism, Les Talens Lyriques aim to shed light on the great masterpieces of music history through the lens of rarer or unpublished works, true missing links in the European musical heritage. This musicological and editorial work is a priority for the Ensemble and contributes to its renown.

From: Cosenza, Italy. LA Opera: soloist in Two Venetians in Naples with Les Talens Lyriques (2027). Hailed as one of the finest interpreters of her generation, soprano Francesca Aspromonte graduated with honors from the Mozarteum Salzburg and furthered her studies under the tutelage of Renata Scotto at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome. Francesca has performed in such venues as Teatro alla Scala, Carnegie Hall, Theatre de Champs-Elysees, Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatoire, Zaryadye Hall, Opéra Royal de Versailles, Royal Albert Hall, Barbican Centre, Wigmore Hall, Wiener Musikverein, Theatre an- der-Wien, Wiener Konzerthaus, Fundaçao Gulbenkian in Lisbon, Teatro Real de Madrid, Teatro la Fenice, Grand Theatre de Provence, Philharmonie Essen, and Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia.

Described by Opera magazine as an “astonishing sopranista” with a “svelte, bright voice” and “fluent coloratura,” Federico Fiorio is regarded as one of today’s most remarkable male sopranos, appearing on many of the world’s leading stages. In the 2025/26 season, he makes his Theater an der Wien debut as Darío in a new production of Pablo Luna’s Benamor, appears as Cleopatra in Hasse’s Marc’Antonio e Cleopatra with the Akademie für Alte Musik in Berlin, as Learco in Maria Antonia Walpurgis’s Talestri, regina delle Amazzoni at the Handel Festival Halle, and as Bellezza in Handel’s Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno at the Aldeburgh Festival of Music and the Arts.

A graduate of the Bordeaux Regional Conservatory, Gilone Gaubert studied the violin with Robert Papavrami, and subsequently studied with Maryvonne Le Dizès at the Boulogne-Billancourt Regional Conservatory. To complete her musical studies, she also joined Solange Chiapparin's piano accompaniment class at the Fontenay-sous-Bois Conservatory. Admitted to Devy Erlih's violin class at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris (CNSM), she left in 1995 rewarded with the Higher Training diploma. Passionate about the interpretation of the early music repertoire on period instruments, she deepened this specialization with Patrick Bismuth and Christophe Rousset at the CNSM in Paris and obtained the Higher Training diploma there in 1998.

After studying violin in Aix en Provence, Benjamin Chénier turned to practicing the early repertoire at the Conservatoire Supérieur de Lyon (CNSMD) with Odile Edouard and in Barcelona in the class of Manfred Kramer. Called by many French and foreign ensembles such as Le Concert Spirituel (H. Niquet), Les Talens Lyriques (C. Rousset), Gli Incogniti (A. Beyer), Le Concert d'Astrée (E. Haim), Les Ombres, Le Poème Harmonique (V. Dumestre), Les Folies Françoises (P. Cohen-Akenine), Les Nouveaux Caractères (S. d'Hérin), Le Center de Musique Baroque de Versailles, La Fenice (J. Tubery), Elyma (G . Garrido), Cappella Mediterranea (L. Alarcon) etc……, he also holds the Teaching Certificate, and currently teaches at the CRR in Paris and at the CRR in St-Maur. Driven by the desire to transmit, he regularly directs orchestral academies (Orchestra Barroca de Malaga, Orchestra of the higher schools of Porto, Lisbon, Paris, at the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, Young European Baroque Orchestra, etc.)

Born in 1974, Emmanuel Jacques gained a premier prix in Baroque cello in Christophe Coin’s class at the Conservatoire national Supérieur de Musique in Paris. He is now principal cellist of Christophe Rousset’s ensemble Les Talens Lyriques, and is a frequent guest with Café Zimmermann (Céline Frisch/Pablo Valetti), Le Concert des nations (Jordi Savall), Les Basses Réunies (Bruno Cocset), Accademia Bizantina (Ottavio Dantone), Stradivaria (Daniel Cuiller), Le Parlement de Musique (Martin Gester), and La Petite Symphonie (Daniel Isoir). Since 2012 he has also been principal cellist of Insula Orchestra, conducted by Laurence Equilbey. His repertoire ranges from the music of the seventeenth century to that of the Romantic era, all played on gut strings. He is a founder member of the Quatuor Ruggieri, formed in 2007, which made its first recording, of quartets by George Onslow, in 2012 (released on the agOgique label).