The Fondation Bettencourt Schueller has been committed to choral singing for 30 years and is attached to this artistic practice because of the values it promotes and the personal and collective benefits it brings.
Created in 1989 in partnership with the French Academy of Fine Arts, the Liliane Bettencourt Choral Singing Prize encourages French master choirs and professional choirs while contributing to the development and influence of this exceptional artistic discipline. The 30th edition is dedicated to professional choirs.
The jury of the Liliane Bettencourt Choral Singing Prize, meeting in June under the chairmanship of Thierry Escaich, has chosen to reward Le Concert Spirituel from among the thirty or so applications received.
The jury praised the choir's musical quality and was particularly receptive to the awareness-raising actions in favour of the vocal art, carried out by Le Concert Spirituel, through original projects.
"This is a choir that has found its essence in French Baroque music and has also been able to renew itself.
This ensemble sings in different formats and has recently opened up to the Romantic repertoire. The jury was impressed by the quality of what this ensemble has been performing for 30 years, the stylistic purity of its Baroque interpretations, the commitment of its artistic director, its strength of musical conviction, but also by the fact that Le Concert Spirituel has been able to apply this know-how and this requirement to other types of music".
Thierry Escaich, President of the jury 2020
INTERVIEW WITH HERVE NIQUET
Le Concert Spirituel is a mixed ensemble, mixing choir and orchestra.
How would you define the specificity of your choir?
Without a doubt, Le Concert Spirituel could not have existed without the voices, without the choir!
My goal is Harmony, however, to achieve it I am not necessarily looking for pretty voices or a unique model, but an assembly of voices, marked personalities, which are above all not all the same. You need a whole range of different colours, so you will multiply your palette of sound expressiveness tenfold. This is what makes Le Concert Spirituel recognisable - to its sound palette, to a certain aplomb.
All this to say that harmony, generosity and commitment are the characteristics of this virtuoso, brilliant and hard-working choir.
Le Concert Spirituel has already won several awards, including a number of discographic awards. What does this award mean to you?
It is a unique Prize. This prize is one of the most beautiful recognitions for the choir of Le Concert Spirituel from a well-known and recognised institution in the music sector after more than thirty years of work and commitment to the repertoire and to the artists.
It marks all the efforts made so far, all the hours spent in rehearsals or on stage, and all the risks taken. This award represents a great opportunity to make our repertoire reach an ever wider audience and, in these times of crisis, to defend all the savoir-faire of this choir.
