Raphaël Pichon

Biography

Raphaël Pichon started his musical education in the Versailles Children Choir, then continued his studies of singing, violin and piano at the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional (Versaille) and the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique (Paris). As a countertenor he sang under the baton of Jordi Savall, Gustav Leonhardt, Ton Koopman and Geoffroy Jourdain. While working with the latter, Raphaël Pichon approached contemporary music for the first time. In 2006 he founded an early music ensemble Pygmalion, heading it since then. The ensemble’s repertoire allows to trace the links between Bach and Mendelssohn, Schütz and Brahms, Rameau and Glück and Berlioz. Pygmalion, which is now part of the Opera of Bordeaux, has participated in major music festivals, and Raphaël Pichon has been acclaimed for his performance of Bach’s sacred music and Rameau’s lyric tragedies. The success of Rameau’s opera Dardanus, staged by Michel Fau at the Bordeaux National Opera, was an important milestone of 2015. In 2016 Pichon’s latest engagements as a conductor include Miranda at the Paris Opéra-Comique (staged by Katie Mitchell after the works of Purcell), the re-staging of Rossi’s Orpheus in Versailles, Bordeaux and Caen, the scenic version of the Vespro della beata Vergine by Monteverdi in Amsterdam, Versailles, Leipzig and London. The project Bach in 7 Words initiated in cooperation with the Philharmonie of Paris grew into the concert performance of the complete Bach’s cantatas.