Jodie Devos, Reinoud Van Mechelen, Chœur de Chambre de Namur, Les Ambassadeurs ~ La Grande Écurie & Alexis Kossenko
Biography Jodie Devos, Reinoud Van Mechelen, Chœur de Chambre de Namur, Les Ambassadeurs ~ La Grande Écurie & Alexis Kossenko
Jodie Devos
studied at the Institute of Music and Pedagogy in Namur, then obtained a Master of Arts at the Royal Academy of Music in London. Having won prizes at several competitions, in 2014 she was awarded the Second Prize and the Audience Prize at the prestigious Queen Elisabeth of Belgium Competition, and entered the Academy of the Opéra-Comique in Paris the same year. In 2015 she was voted Young Vocal Artist of the Year by the International Classical Music Awards (ICMA).
Jodie Devos now pursues an international career, performing under the baton of such conductors as Paolo Arrivabene, Laurent Campellone, Mikko Franck, Leonardo García Alarcón, Philippe Jordan, Dmitri Jurowski, Louis Langrée, Antonello Manacorda, Enrique Mazzola, Marc Minkowski, François-Xavier Roth, Christophe Rousset and Guy Van Waas. Among the renowned directors she has worked with are Romeo Castellucci, Denis Podalydès, Emilio Sagi and Bob Wilson.
Her luminous timbre and virtuosity enable her to sing the most emblematic roles of the coloratura soprano repertory, including Olympia (Les Contes d’Hoffmann), Eurydice (Orphée aux Enfers), Lakmé, Königin der Nacht (Die Zauberflöte), Blondchen (Die Entführung aus dem Serail), Adèle (Le Comte Ory), Marie (La Fille du régiment), Philine (Mignon), La Fée (Cendrillon), Le Feu, Le Rossignol and La Princesse (L'Enfant et les sortilèges), Adele (Die Fledermaus) and Tytania (A Midsummer Night’s Dream). Particularly acclaimed for her diction and acting skills, she is also a successful interpreter of the French operatic repertory comique, in such works as Le Timbre d’argent (Saint-Saëns), La Nonne sanglante (Gounod), Les Mousquetaires au couvent (Varney), Le Chalet (Adam) and Le Domino noir (Auber). Jodie Devos records exclusively for Outhere Music France.
Véronique Gens
After having dominated the Baroque scene for more than a decade, Véronique Gens went on to establish a solid international reputation and is now considered one of the finest interpreters of Mozart and the French repertory.
One of the flagship roles of her career, Donna Elvira in the production of Don Giovanni by Peter Brook and Claudio Abbado at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, brought her worldwide recognition. Her repertory comprises the leading Mozart roles (Countess, Vitellia, Fiordiligi etc.) and the great roles of tragédie lyrique (including Iphigénie en Tauride, Iphigénie en Aulide and Alceste) but also heroines of a later period such as Alice Ford (Falstaff), Eva (Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg), Madame Lidoine (Dialogues des Carmélites) and Missia (La Veuve joyeuse). Véronique Gens also gives numerous concerts and recitals in a wide-ranging repertory all over the world, notably in Paris, Dresden, Berlin, Beijing, Vienna, Prague, London, Tanglewood, Stockholm, Moscow, Geneva and Edinburgh.
She has performed on the world’s foremost operatic stages, among them the Opéra National de Paris, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the Vienna Staatsoper, the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, La Monnaie in Brussels, the Liceu in Barcelona, the Teatro Real in Madrid, De Nederlandse Opera in Amsterdam and the Aixen-Provence, Salzburg and Glyndebourne festivals.
In 1999, she was voted Vocal Artist of the Year at the Victoires de la Musique Classique. Her many recordings (more than eighty CDs and DVDs) have received several international prizes: most recently, her album of French mélodies, Néère won a Gramophone Award in 2016, while Visions obtained an International Classical Music Award and an International Opera Award in 2018. Also La Reyne de Chypre by Halévy obtained a Gramophone Award in 2019, in the Opera category.
Reinoud Van Mechelen
raduated from his vocal studies at the Conservatoire Royal in Brussels in the class of Dina Grossberger in 2012. In 2017 he was awarded the prestigious Caecilia Prize as Young Musician of the Year from the union of the Belgian music press. An acknowledgement from "home" for the artist who managed to establish himself at numerous international stages within his early years of career.
Already in 2007 Reinoud Van Mechelen caught attention at the European Baroque Academy in Ambronay (France) under the baton of Hervé Niquet. In 2011 he was a member of William Christie’s and Paul Agnew’s "Jardin des Voix" and became a regular soloist of Les Arts florissants subsequently. Guest appeareances with this ensemble made him perform at the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, the Edinburgh Festival, the Château de Versailles, the Bolchoï Theatre in Moscow, the Royal Albert Hall and the Barbican Centre in London, the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, the Philharmony and the Opéra Comique in Paris as well as at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York.
Many renowned Baroque ensembles such as Collegium Vocale, Le Concert Spirituel, La Petite Bande, Les Talens Lyriques, Pygmalion, Le Poème Harmonique, Il Gardellino, Insula Orchestra, L’Arpeggiata, Ludus Modalis, B’Rock, Ricercar Consort, Capriccio Stravagante, Scherzi Musicali and the European Union Baroque Orchestra ensured his cooperation.
In 2014 Reinoud Van Mechelen sang the part of the Evangelist in J. S. Bach's St. John Passionfor the first time in his career with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, a part he will be singing again with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam, among others. The last few seasons have, however, been highlighted by his performances of Rameau’s title-role in Dardanus (Opéra national de Bordeaux) and Zoroastre (on concert-tour to the Festival de Montpellier et Radio-France, the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, the Festival de Beaune, the Théâtre Royal in Versailles and the Theater an der Wien), both productions with Raphaël Pichon conducting. 2016/17 saw his Zurich Opera debut as Jason in Charpentier's Médée conducted by William Christie. Apart from numerous other commitments, he added further new roles in concert version to his repertory: Belmonte (The Abduction from the Seraglio) with the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris and Gérald (Lakmé) with the Munich Radio Orchestra.
Besides numerous performances with his own ensemble, a nocte temporis, his last two seasons have been highlighted by the jubilee-production celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Concert Spirituel („L'Opéra des Opéras", recorded and released by Alpha Classics) as well as in two international concert-tours with Les Arts florissants. He also performed the title-role in Rameau’s Pygmalion at the Dijon Opera and made his debuts at the Théâtre royal de la Monnaie (Tamino in Die Zauberflöte) and at the Staatsoper Berlin (Hippolyte in Hippolyte et Aricie under the baton of Sir Simon Rattle).
His 2019/20 season promises to be busy with his role debut as Nadir (Les Pêcheurs de perles) at the Toulon Opera, Purcell's King Arthur at the Staatsoper Berlin, Rameau's Pygmalion at the Grand Théâtre in Luxembourg,L'incoronazione di Poppea (Arnalta) at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées and both the St John Passionas St Matthew Passionwith Collegium Vocale Gent.
Reinoud Van Mechelen already joined numerous recordings. His first solo album with the title "Erbame Dich" (arias by J. S. Bach) was released by Alpha Classics in 2016 finding unanimous acclaim by the press and receiving both a "Choc" from the monthly magazine Classica („A Bach-recording blessed by the gods“) as well as one of 10 Caecilia-Awards for the best recordings of the year 2016. Meanwhile three further albums with a nocte temporis have been released by Alpha Classics: "Clérambault, cantates françaises" (2018, "Diapason d'or"), "The Dubhlinn Gardens" (2019) and ‘Dumesny, haute-contre de Lully’ (2019).
Tassis Christoyannis
Regarded as one of the finest baritones of his generation, admired for his acting skills and his musicality, Athens born Tassis Christoyannis studied piano, singing, conduct in gand composition at the Athens Conservatory, before going on to specialise in the Italian repertoire with the baritone Aldo Protti.
After several years as a member of the Greek National Opera in Athens, he joined the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf, where he took major roles in works by Monteverdi, Mozart, Rossini, Verdi, Puccini and others. Now freelance, he sings the principal baritone roles in Italian, French and Russian works at opera houses and festivals all over Europe, including Paris, Vienna, Berlin, Geneva, Glyndebourne, Brussels, Amsterdam, Strasbourg, Bordeaux, Frankfurt, etc. Tassis Christoyannis is also much in demand for his skills as a song recitalist.
