LES MUSICIENS DE SAINT-JULIEN

Founded by François Lazarevitch in 2005, the ensemble Les Musiciens de Saint-Julien takes its name from the Confrérie Saint-Julien-des-Ménétriers, an important musicians’ guild, founded in Paris in the Middle Ages. From the early fourteenth to the late eighteenth century, the guild brought together musicians who were also dancers, who performed music of oral tradition as well as written compositions, and embodied the sacred union of music and dance.

With the same curiosity Les Musiciens de Saint-Julien explore little-known repertoires, such as those of the airs de cour (“Et la fleur vole”), early Scottish music (“For ever Fortune”) and brunettes (“À l’ombre d’un ormeau”), as well as works from the «great repertoire », written by composers such as Lully, Charpentier, Bach and Telemann. Natural musical phrasing, instrumental colour and the spirit of the dance are always of vital importance. The ensemble takes part in dance performances (“Métamorphose(s)” with the Baroque dance company L’Eventail, directed by Marie-Geneviève Massé) and theatre performances (“Monsieur de Pourceaugnac” by Molière and Lully, with the company Les Malins Plaisirs, director Vincent Tavernier).