Hervé Niquet
Conductor and founder of Le Concert Spirituel
A harpsichordist, organist, pianist, singer, composer, choirmaster and conductor, Hervé Niquet is one of the most inventive musical personalities of recent years, recognised in particular as an eminent specialist in the French repertoire from the Baroque era to Claude Debussy.
1987 creation of Le Concert Spirituel
Hervé Niquet founded Le Concert Spirituel in 1987 with the ambition of reviving the great French motet. In more than thirty-five years, the ensemble has established itself as a benchmark in the interpretation of the Baroque repertoire, rediscovering works both known and unknown by French, English and Italian composers of the period. It performs in the greatest international concert halls.
In the same spirit, and postulating that there is only one French music without any break throughout the centuries, Hervé Niquet conducts the great international orchestras with whom he explores the repertoires of the 19th and early 20th centuries, such as the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, the Kanazawa Orchestra (Japan), Sinfonia Varsovia, the Münchner Rundfunkorchester, the Orchestre Royal Philharmonique de Liège, the Gulbenkian Orchestra of Lisbon, the Orchestre de chambre de Paris, the Orchestre national de Lyon, the Orchestre de l'Opéra de Rouen, etc. His pioneering spirit in the rediscovery of works from this period led him to take part in the creation of the Palazzetto Bru Zane - Centre de musique romantique française in Venice in 2009, with which he carries out numerous projects.
Numerous collaborations
In opera, he has worked with directors with aesthetics as diverse as Mariame Clément, Georges Lavaudant, Gilles and Corinne Benizio (alias Shirley and Dino), Vincent Tavernier, Christoph Marthaler, Julien Lubek and Cécile Roussat, Romeo Castellucci and Christian Schiaretti.
As Music Director of the Flemish Radio Choir and Principal Guest Conductor of the Brussels Philharmonic, Hervé Niquet has been heavily involved in the recording of the Prix de Rome cantatas under the aegis of the Palazzetto Bru Zane, as well as previously unpublished operas. In 2016, his recording of Félicien David's Herculaneum (Bru Zane 2015) won an Echo Klassik Award. With the recording Visions (Alpha Classics), Hervé Niquet and Véronique Gens have received numerous awards in France and abroad (voted Recording of the year 2018 by ICMA and Best Recording - solo recital 2018 by the International Opera Awards). In 2019, Hervé Niquet received the 'Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik' for the quality and diversity of his recordings, as well as a Gramophone Music Award 2019 in the Opera category for his recording of Halévy's La Reine de Chypre (Bru Zane 2018).
A desire to pass on knowledge
In September 2022, Hervé Niquet was appointed Artistic Director of the Festival de Saintes.
He is also deeply involved in teaching young musicians (Académie d'Ambronay, Jeune Orchestre de l'Abbaye aux Dames, Schola Cantorum, CNSMD de Lyon, McGill University in Montreal, and soon with the early music department of the CNSMD in Paris) and in numerous master classes and lectures. Passing on the fruits of his work on interpretation, the conventions of the time and the latest musicological discoveries, as well as the realities and demands of the musician's craft, is essential to him.
True to his desire to mount new and varied programmes, Hervé Niquet is already looking forward, with his usual energy, to the ensemble's 40th anniversary in 2027!
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