SAMUEL HENGEBAERT - artistic direction and narrator

Curious and eclectic artist, Samuel Hengebaert spallist and violist is a musician eager to meet and share. After studying at the National Conservatory of Music in Lyon, he definitely turned to early music by continuing his studies at the Cnsmd in Paris. Since then, he has played all over the world in major baroque music ensembles such as the Correspondances ensemble, the Talens Lyriques, the Folies Françoises, Akademie für Alte Musik, Insula Orchestra, Orchester Nord, La Chapelle Rhenane, etc. Alongside his orchestral activities, he defends a more intimate, chamber music repertoire and engages in ensembles such as the Flying Squadron of the Queen, or the Desmarest Ensemble and is invited to many festivals (Chaise-Dieu, Saintes , Aix en Provence, Montpellier-Radio-France, Ambronay, Barokkfest in Trondheim, Tokyo cityhall, Carnegie Hall..... )

Samuel is regularly invited to participate in numerous programs on France Musique, RSR and SWR. His meeting in 2010 with Sigiswald Kuijken is decisive and will allow him to discover the Violoncello da Spalla, an instrument rediscovered in 2005, an instrument for which Samuel Hengebaert is passionate and which he decides to put at the center of his work. A rare instrument, it allowed him to discover the cello repertoire which he played in recital with harpsichordist Ronan Khalil.

Samuel Hengebaert plays a spalla by Jean-Paul Boury made for him in 2016.

HELENE DESAINT - viola

Hélène Desaint experiences music through encounters and sharing, with all the demands and satisfaction they carry within them. So many experiences rich in learning and exploration of oneself and of the instrument – an 1882 Giuseppe Sgarbi on loan from a German patron – in which the young violist shines.

Inspired by dialogue with performers and composers, Hélène Desaint finds herself naturally inclined towards chamber music and the contemporary repertoire – two paths that she cleared for herself during her formative years. After beginnings in Paris and then in Gennevilliers, she entered the CNSMD in Lyon, where she took part in numerous projects and collaborations around today's music. The rest of her career – the Musikhochschule in Lübeck then the Geneva University of Music, where she obtained a master's degree in soloism in 2011 – was strongly marked by the teaching of Miguel da Silva. The residency at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel, which she closed with the recording of a Schumann/Kurtág disc released in November 2018 (Fuga Libera-Outhere), offered her new and fruitful musical encounters. In February 2019, the recording of a Ysaye box set (String Trio "le Chimay") was awarded a diapason d'or.

Hélène Desaint participates in many programs hosted by the festivals of the Orangerie de Sceaux, Saintes, Flagey, Savonlinna, La Roque d'Anthéron, Musikfest Goslar, Musiques démesurées, Musique à l'Empéri, Musica, Grame or Présence, where she performed with, among others, Augustin Dumay, Louis Lortie, the Voce quartets, Psophos, Akilone, Ronald van Spaendonck and Gary Hoffman.

She has also been a member for three years of the Ensemble 2e2m, within which she strives to defend the modern and contemporary repertoire. In particular, she created, as part of the 2008 Présence festival, the Trois Strophes pour Patrice Lumumba by Bernard Cavanna for solo viola and ensemble, which are dedicated to her and give rise to an Æon record. The year 2019 saw the release of a film by Alain Fleischer of a Reich quartet, selected in official competition at the Festival du film sur l'art de Montréal.

She recently appeared as a soloist with Ars Nova at the Philharmonie de Paris, with the Gulbenkian Foundation Orchestra in Lisbon and very recently with the Orchester de Caen under the direction of Kanako Abe.

Hélène Desaint was honored in the Génération Spedidam 2015, and received recognition and support from Mécénat Musical Société Générale (2009) and Adami (2010).

ANAÏS BERTRAND - Mezzo Soprano

Along with a degree in sociology, Anaïs Bertrand studied singing at the Maîtrise Notre-Dame de Paris then at the National Conservatory of Music and Dance in Paris with Valérie Guillorit. She also works with Regina Werner at the Hochschule in Leipzig. In 2018, she won 1st prize in the Froville baroque singing competition. A sensitive musician, she feeds on all forms of expression offered by the vocal repertoire: from Gregorian chant to contemporary music, or even from polyphony to lyrical art.

She holds the Aedes ensemble (Mathieu Romano) and performs as a soloist with Le Poème Harmonique (Vincent Dumestre), the Marguerite-Louise ensemble (Gaétan Jarry), as part of the recording of the opera Les Arts Florissants by Marc-Antoine Charpentier, the ensemble Near your ear (Robin Pharo) for the CD Come Sorrow, the ensemble Maja (Bianca Chillemi), with La Petite Maison (Camille Doucet and Victor Jacob) for the role of Mélisande (Pelléas et Mélisande by Claude Debussy), with the company Maurice and the Others (Jeanne Desoubeaux and Igor Bouin), that of L'Enfant in L'Enfant et les sortilèges by Maurice Ravel as well as that of Didon in Didon and Aeneas in 'Henry Purcell, the Les Surprises ensemble (Louis Noël Bestion de Camboulas), the Correspondences ensemble (Sébastien Daucé), or even the Tempête ensemble (Simon-Pierre Bestion de Camboulas). She also collaborates with the Pygmalion ensemble (Raphaël Pichon). In 2022, she will sing the role of Carmen in a new creation by the Maurice et les Autres company.

ALEXIS GOURNEL - piano

Immersed in music from an early age, Alexis Gournel very quickly discovered an affinity with chamber music. An eclectic artist, he performs in various formations, exploring the varied worlds of the piano repertoire. Originally from Basse-Normandie, he began his musical studies at the Caen Conservatory before joining the class of Hortense Cartier-Bresson at the CNSMD in Paris. Holder of master's degrees in piano, chamber music and pedagogy (Certificate of Aptitude), he then joined the European Chamber Music Academy (ECMA), which allows him to improve his skills regularly throughout Europe with the most eminent personalities of chamber music.

A founding member of the Trio Hélios (piano, violin and cello) in 2014, he distinguished himself in numerous international competitions and recently won second prize at the Trondheim International Chamber Music Competition, second prize at the International Chamber Music Competition of Lyon, as well as the special Franz Liszt prize at the Joseph Joachim Competition in Weimar. He also shares a great musical complicity with saxophonist Antonio Garcia Jorge, with whom he recorded a first album entitled "La Follia Nuova" at IBS Classical. His passion for vocal music also encourages him to collaborate regularly with singers such as Marianne Croux, Anaïs Bertrand, Romain Dayez, Jean-Christophe Lanièce... His investment in contemporary music has earned him work with composers such as Kaija Saariaho, Nicolas Bacri and Tristan Murail as part of the Aspects des Musiques d'Aujourd'hui festival. In 2016, he ensured the world premiere of the trio “Orients” by Patrick Otto.

He performs in prestigious halls (Salle Cortot, Philharmonie de Paris, Opéra de Lyon, Phoenix Hall in Osaka, Wigmore Hall...) as well as in many festivals such as the Festival Européens Jeunes Talents, La Folle Journée de Nantes, La Folle Journée in Tokyo, La Folle Journée in Warsaw, the Arcs Festival, the Auvers-sur-Oise Festival, the International Piano Festival of La Roque d'Anthéron, the Musical Meetings of Evian, the Pablo Festival Casals de Prades…