First prize of the “Talent Conductors” of ADAMI, Pierre Dumoussaud is musical director of the Ensemble Furians he founded in 2010, at the age of 20 years. Its activity is already a great scope for a young conductor, ranging from the opera to the concert through creation, CD and ballet.

After conducting at the Bordeaux National Opera Don Carlo, Le Tour d’Ecrou et Les Tréteaux de Maître Pierre, he started out in 2017-2018 with Lucia di Lammermoor. Very invested in creation, he also worked with l’Ensemble Court-Circuit in Lille Opera and in Opera Comique in La princesse Légère by Violeta Cruz. We will see him finally for the first time as conductor for Orchestre National des Pays de Loire in Angers-Nantes Opéra for the resurrection and recording for the Palazzetto Bru Zane of P’ p’tites Michu by Messager.

Attracted to dance, Pierre Dumoussaud already led great classical ballets such as Romeo and Juliet or Giselle in the choreographs of Charles Jude at the Opera National de Bordeaux. He also collaborated with Jean-Claude Gallotta for L’Amour Sorcier- L’Histoire du Soldat and accompanied many choreographic creations: Festin de l’Araignée de Roussel ou Folksongs de Beric. 

His repertoire developed from the eighteenth to the twenty-first century alongside the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, le Real Filharmonia Galicia, the Janacek Philharmonic, the Budapest Opera and the Symphony Orchestra of North Hungary as well as with the great french orchestras: the Orchestra National of the Capitole of Toulouse, the Lille National Orchestra, the Orchestra of Auvergne, the National Orchestra of Lorraine, the Opera Orchestra National de Montpellier, the National Opera of Lorraine, the Regional Orchestra of Normandy, the Orchestra of Pau Pays de  Béarn, the Orchestra of Cannes PACA, the Orchestra Colonne and the Pasdeloup Orchestra at the Philharmonie de Paris. Having met a great public and critical success by repeatedly replacing Alain Lombard offhand, he continues to maintain a special relationship with National Bordeaux Aquitaine Orchestra of which he was chief assistant from 2014 to 2016.

Testifying to a can-do attitude in the field of cultural action, he imagined and directed many shows for the young public before creating and recording with the Paris Chamber Orchestra two tales of Roald Dahl set to music by Isabelle Aboulker and read by François Morel.

Great voices, instrumental soloists and composers already staked his career, including Mireille Delunsch, Tassis Christoyannis, Elza van den Heever, Chiara Skerath, Nicholas Angelich, Renaud Capuçon, Henri Demarquette, Yuval Gotlibovich, Ophélie Gaillard, Emile Naoumoff, François Sarhan, Denis Dufour and Guillaume Connesson. He also made a great complicity with the French young generation with Florian Sempey, Thomas Dolié, Thibaut Garcia, Guillaume Vincent and Thomas Enhco that he created the first piano concerto.

Pierre Dumoussaud has forged solid experience by assisting Marc Minkowski, Paul Daniel, Patrick Davin, John Fiore, Karen Kamensek, and Pierre Cao. They allowed him to work with directors Dimitri Tcherniakov, Olivier Py, Christopher Alden, Ivan Alexandre and Vincent Huguet on productions of La Bohème, Tristan and Isolde, Simon Boccanegra, Norma, the Damnation of Faust, the King of Ys, Il Turco in Italia, Semiramide, Don Giovanni, the Nozze di Figaro and Alceste. He did so his arms in large lyrical institutions : Festival of Aix-en-Provence, Opéra National de Paris, Theater of the castle of Drottningholm and Royal Opera of Versailles Castle Theatre.

Pierre Dumoussaud was trained in conducting by Alain Altinoglu in the CNSMDP and Nicolas Brochot in PSPBB. He co-conducted with Peter Eötvös the Symphony No. 4 by Ives in the Festival of Lucerne and benefited from the advices of David Zinman, Michel Tabachnik, Susanna Mälkki, David Stern, Jean Deroyer, and Frieder Bernius. 

As first bassoonist, he played in formations such as the Paris Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of Luxembourg, the Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra, the Schleswig Holstein Festival Orchestra and was co-soloist in the Pasdeloup symphonic orchestra.

Amine KOUIDER is a conductor with an international career of great musical and artistic richness. His personality is expressed in an energetic, committed, fiery direction that has earned him great success in many renowned formations he has led in France and abroad.

His meeting with Valéry GERGIEV at the Saint Petersburg Opera, of which he was the assistant conductor for three years, allowed him to become the heir of a great musical tradition and to evolve in an international artistic environment of very high level.

A conductor with an international career

Amine KOUIDER is regularly invited to conduct many renowned formations: the National  Orchestra of Capitole in Toulouse, the Strasbourg  Philharmonic orchestra, the Mulhouse Symphonic orchestra, the Nice Philharmonic orchestra, the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic orchestra, the Marseille Philharmonic Orchestra, the Toulon Opera Orchestra, the Lamoureux Orchestra.

He has also conducted: the Kirov Orchestra of the St. Petersburg Opera, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, the St. Petersburg Cappella Orchestra, the St. Petersburg State Orchestra, the Bucharest National Opera Orchestra, the Cairo Symphony Orchestra, the Tunisian Symphony Orchestra, the Reykjavík Chamber Orchestra, the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra and the Cuban National Orchestra.

A charismatic artistic director

From 1998 to 2004, he was music director of the Orchestre International de Paris with which he made several concerts and recordings noticed in the musical revue “Classica”. From 2001 to 2008 and from 2014 to 2016 he was artistic director of the National Symphony Orchestra of Algeria with which he performed notably in the context of the event “Algiers, Capital of Arab Culture 2007” and “Constantine Capital of Arab Culture 2015” and the “Algiers International Festival of Symphonic Music” from 2014 to 2018.

From 2012 to 2014 he was artistic director of the Orchestre Symphonique Algérie-France with which he gave several concerts. At the same time, he was also advisor for music to the Minister of Culture in Algeria and project manager of the new Opera of Algiers, of which he also provided the opening concert.

Since 2016, Amine KOUIDER has been artistic director of the new Algiers Opera and principal conductor of the Algiers Opera Symphony Orchestra. In this capacity, he has conducted nearly a hundred concerts in several symphonic works, operas and ballets including the Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, Barber of Seville, La Traviata, Rigoletto, Carmen, Madame Butterfly, The Nutcracker and Swan Lake.

Also artistic director of the International Philharmonic Choir and Orchestra of Paris that he founded in 1997, he builds an ensemble rich in its diversity and shares with its choristers and musicians its passion for music, the requirement of quality and its humanist dreams.

It is with this training in residence at UNESCO that he regularly gives concerts as part of the cultural and humanitarian campaigns of the famous organization in a repertoire of oratorios such as Verdi’s Requiem, Brahms’ Requiem, Dvorak’s Requiem, Mozart’s Great Mass in C and “Operas in concerts” such as Boris Godunov, Faust, La Belle Helene , La Vie Parisienne, Aida, Trouvère and Cavalleria Rusticana. Rich in his dual culture, he is interested in music from other cultural areas and becomes a tireless ambassador for the rapprochement between cultures. It is at the head of this ensemble that he was named “UNESCO Artist for Peace”

A solid formation

Born in Algiers in 1967, this young violin virtuoso, passionate about music discovers at 17 years old the direction of orchestra  and decides to make it his profession. He studied at the Algiers Conservatory, studied choir conducting and conducting at the Marseille and Paris  Conservatories, then Copenhagen with Michel TABACHNIK.

He perfected his skills with Manuel ROSENTHAL, Ilya MUSIN and Daniel BAREMBOIM. At the same time, he obtained a bachelor’s degree in musicology in Algiers and a master’s degree in musicology at the Sorbonne, Paris IV.

He participates in advanced courses as a conductor of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, the Kirov Opera in St. Petersburg, the Berlin National Opera, the Paris Opera, the Geneva Orchestra and the Santa Cecillia Orchestra in Rome.

The richness of Amine KOUIDER’s artistic career has allowed him to have a wide repertoire including many symphonic works, oratorios, ballets and nearly 30 operas.

Philip Hui is interested in all expressions of his art, from Symphonic to Ballet, from opera to operetta and aims to share the beauties of this vast repertoire with the greatest audience.

Philip HUI joined the Conservatory National Superior of Music in Paris (Masterclass with Pierre Boulez) and obtained a 1st prize of orchestra conductor. 

After having led for many years youth orchestras such as “l’Orchestre Regional des Jeunes de Haute Normandie”, he became Assistant Conductor for the Bretagne Orchestra and then musical adviser for the Opera of Tours.

In 2000, he founded the “Atelier Lyrique de Haute Normandie”, where he was the artistic director until 2009.

In 2001, James Conlon noticed and invited him to become his assistant at the Paris National Opera. Since then, Philippe Hui conducts regularly in many operas and ballets: Orpheus and Eurydice by Gluck, Pina Bausch choreography, followed by a tour in Germany, the Barber of Seville , a tango for Mr. Lautrec, Mozart’s Idomeneo, Paquita, La Sylphide etc… He also got part of the Center of lyrical Training  of the Paris Opera. 

Philip Hui is invited by many venues and festivals in France : Opera of Paris, Tours, Metz, Reims, Limoges, Avignon, Toulon, Rennes, Theâtre des Champs-Elysees , Salle Gaveau , Opera Comique, Centre Lyrique d’Auvergne, Festival de Loches… and abroad: Festival in Nuremberg, Baalbeck…

He conducts a large number of works, including L’enlevement au Serail, La Veuve Joyeuse, La Fille mal Gardée, Roméo et Juliette de Prokoviev, Casse-Noisette, la Voix Humaine, La Belle-Helène, Carmen, La vie Parisienne, La Passion selon St Jean, Orphée aux Enfers, Le Petit Ramoneur de B.Britten that he recorded with Lambert Wilson etc…. 

Philip Hui also worked with l’Orchestre National de Lorraine, de Bretagne ou de Picardie… and collaborates regularly with ensembles such as La Maîtrise des Hauts de Seine. He was for several years Musical Director of the Festival Opéras en Plein Air  : La Traviata, La Flûte enchantée, le Barbier de Séville et les Contes d’Hoffmann.

He is also the musical Director of the Franz Schreker Institute for which he conducts many works in the Champs Elysées Theater, thus initiating a solid and regular collaboration with the Pasdeloup Orchestra. 

Today, he is the Musical Director of the Philharmonie des Deux Mondes, symphonic orchestra in Loire Atlantique, along with a career of conductor in festivals (such as Festival Offenbach d’Etretat…) and orchestras in France and abroad.

A career as a professional singer

Choir conductor and conductor, Jean-Marie Puissant began his career as a professional singer (soloist and in choirs) under the direction of Herreweghe, Christie, Corboz, Malgoire, Boulez, Gardiner, Abbado, Nagano, Bertini, Barenboim, Giulini…, with whom he tackles a very wide repertoire, with very varied aesthetics.

The eclecticism of the repertoire

It is this eclecticism that he likes to share with the artists he leads.
As a conductor, he tackles works by Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Stravinsky, Ligeti, Marquez, Prokofiev…
As a choir director, he conducts secular and sacred works for a cappella choir, or with piano, organ or orchestra (masses, motets, oratorios, operas and various pieces) by European and non-European composers (Brazil, China, Korea, Mexico, Argentina), from the Baroque period to contemporary music, including musicals (Bernstein, Joubert, Gershwin), Argentine tango (Mosalini, Piazzolla) and jazz (commission works from Patrice Caratini and Didier Goret).

The Requirement of Interpretation

For contemporary works, he favours, whenever possible, a work in close collaboration with composers: Palmeri, Márquez, Ingari, Loussier, Caratini, Goret, Joubert, Mosalini, Aboulker…
Anxious to respect the aesthetics specific to each composer, he strives to give an interpretation of each work, vocal or instrumental, in respect of the style and historical context of each one.
He also pays particular attention to the visual aspect of their representation (lighting, staging etc.).
Indeed, according to him, each concert, each public performance must be an exceptional moment, both for the artists and for the public.
A Diapason d’or was awarded to the recording of Pierné’s works made with the Chœur Nicolas de Grigny and the Orchestre National de Lorraine under the direction of Jacques Mercier.

Diverse artistic collaborations 

Currently artistic director of the Nicolas de Grigny Choir, the Variatio Choir and the Allegri Soloist Ensemble, he has conducted the National Youth Choir, the Sorbonne-Nouvelle Choir and collaborates with several orchestras: the Orchestre National d’Île-de-France, the Orchestre National de Metz, the Savaria Symphonia of Hungary, the Paris-Sorbonne Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Opéra de Reims, the Lamoureux Orchestra, the Colonne Orchestra, the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Les Muses Galantes, the Sainte Cécile Academy, the Ad Libitum ensemble…

International recognition

Several international productions called on him to conduct the choirs during exceptional events at the Stade de France: Verdi’s operas Nabucco and Aida, and a concert by the Rolling Stones.
He is regularly invited by numerous festivals as a choir director, jury member of international competitions or to give masterclasses in the interpretation of the French baroque repertoire or in choral conducting, in France and abroad (Israel, Slovenia, Russia, Estonia, Jordan, Portugal, Belgium, China, Argentina, Cameroon, Senegal).

The Ensemble Sequentiae, created in 2013, focusses on sacred music. It is composed of an orchestra of 20 musicians and a choir of 30 singers, all coming from the Lyon and Paris Conservatories.

The ensemble is in residence at the Royal Church of Saint-Germain- l’Auxerrois in Paris and gives concerts both in France( Paris, Lyon, Marseille… ) and abroad.

After performing Faure’s Requiem, Charpentier’s La messe de minuit and Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem, Sequentiae will be performing a German repertoire in 2016 :  Bach’s Magnificat and Mendelssohn’s Psalm 42.

The choir places great importance on singing”a capella” and has set up a chamber choir in 2016 which will be performing Tallis’s Lamentations of Jeremiah and Allegri’s Miserere.

An association governed by the 1901 law, founded in 1997 by the Franco-Algerian conductor Amine Kouider, the ICC is a group of 150 choristers of various nationalities who share a love of choral singing and whose mission is to bring cultures closer together through music.

Conductor Amine Kouider, choirmaster Mustapha Kaïd and an assistant choirmaster jointly lead this ensemble, whose ambition is to share a wide repertoire ranging from classics of lyrical or sacred music to works from other cultures.

The International Philharmonic Choir produces its major works, usually accompanied by an orchestra of more than 40 musicians, in prestigious venues in Paris or the Province. In recent years it has been heard at La Sorbonne, UNESCO, Gaveau Hall, Radio France, Hotel de Ville Paris and the churches of Saint Augustine, Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Saint-Eustache and La Madeleine… He has also performed at the Théâtre Montansier in Versailles, the Ancient Theatre of Arles, the Saint-Victor Festival in Marseille, the Ibn Khaldoune Theatre in Algiers, at the invitation of the Governorate of Greater Algiers, and also on Antenne 2, TV 5 and CNN.

The International Philharmonic Choir has been a guest of prestigious orchestras such as the International Orchestra of the CROUS of Paris and the National Orchestra of Algeria. More recently he has collaborated with the Toulon Opera Orchestra.

The International Philharmonic Choir participates in UNESCO’s campaigns for peace and the development of exchanges between cultures. Through his success, he has helped promote actions such as “VeSAK Commemoration,” “Street Children,” “Growing Peace,” “World AIDS Day.” He also performed a concert with the National Orchestra of Algiers, in Arles, for the rapprochement of cultures and produced “Verdi’s Requiem” in concert in Chartres Cathedral for the 35th anniversary of the cathedral’s inscription as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

In recognition of their commitments, the International Philharmonic Choir and its conductor Amine Kouider have been “UNESCO Artists for Peace” since 1999.

Created in 1986 by Bernard de Quillacq, the Nicolas de Grigny Choir is made up of high-level amateur singers from Reims and its region, supervised by a professional artistic team: Jean-Marie Puissant, artistic director since 1992, Nicolas Pattier, assistant conductor, Claire Marin-Décarsin, pianist-accompanist, as well as solo singers, instrumentalists, dancers, directors, technicians and orchestras for concerts and shows.

Thanks to the high standards and dynamism of Jean-Marie Puissant, the Nicolas de Grigny Choir gives contrasting shows of high quality. The artistic director’s desire is to tackle a wide variety of repertoires, from the baroque period to the present day, including world music (Brazil, China, Spain, Mexico, Korea) or jazz (Caratini, Goret, Gershwin). It performs in different formations: with orchestra, organ, a cappella, in a large choir (80 to 150 choristers) or in chamber choir, women’s choir, men’s choir or vocal ensemble, which allows it to perform in a private room, a concert hall, a cathedral and even in a stadium!

For several years now, the Nicolas de Grigny Choir has wanted to bring another dimension to the interpretation of works and has produced staged shows (Carmen, Passion Opéra, Carmina Burana, Gershwin’s Musicals, Mateo de Palmeri, Dido and Aeneas, Rossini’s Petite messe solennelle, Puccini’s Suor Angelica), which involve musicians, dancers, circus artists, actors and extras.

The Nicolas de Grigny Choir has been invited by renowned conductors (Jacques Mercier, Yoel Levi, Jean-Claude Malgoire, Jean-Claude Casadesus, Laurent Petitgirard, Arie van Beek, Julien Leroy, Enrique Mazzola…) with the national orchestras of Île-de-France, Lorraine, Lille and Montpellier, the Grande Écurie and the Chambre du Roy, the Colonne, Lamoureux, Reims Opera orchestras and by numerous festivals (Flâneries Musicales de Reims, Festival de la Chaise-Dieu, Festival des Cathédrales…). It performed at the Stade de France for Verdi’s operas Nabucco and Aida. A Diapason d’or was awarded to the recording of Pierné’s works made with the Chœur Nicolas de Grigny and the Orchestre National de Lorraine under the direction of Jacques Mercier.

The Nicolas de Grigny Choir regularly organizes public rehearsals with commentary, most often in the Châtillons community center (their rehearsals place), but also in village halls in the surrounding municipalities of Reims such as Cormontreuil, Gueux or Saint-Brice-Courcelles,  in order to introduce vocal music to people who do not regularly go to concerts or to music lovers who want to discover new works and better understand them.

The Nicolas de Grigny Choir benefits from the support of the city of Reims, the Marne departmental council and the Grand Est region.

Franco-algerian musician, Salim Beltitane was born in a family of musicians.Influenced by this cultural heritage he was trained in algerian and arabic music and discovered percussions language.

When he was a teenager he began practising oriental percussions with famous masters before completing his learning in Algeria, Egypt mostly in Cairo where he stayed several times.

As a musician appreciated both on stage and in studio, he completed a career enriched by qualitative encounters and experiences, playing various repertoires such as french song, jazz, classical arabic and arabo-andalusian music or world music.

He notably played for Brigitte Fossey, Sapho, Hossam Ramzy and many classical arabic music orchestras from Maghreb or Middle East. Salim appears on stage very often with best in class orchestras or musicians of the arabic- oriental scene in France and many other countries in Europe, Maghreb, Middle East and Africa ( Turkey, Germany, Algeria, Morocco, Egypt, Spain, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Senegal…)

He studied in Strasbourg Academy and obtained a diploma of Traditional Musics in CEFEDEM Ile de France.

For more than 10 years he has been teaching oriental percussions and since 2016 ethno-musicology in Lorraine University.

Being among the most appreciated soloists in accompanying belly dance or oriental dance, he is often asked for courses, festivals of oriental dance and he creates methods, educational tools in order to transmit this ancient art.

Eléonore Bernhardt’s musical studies began at the Montpellier Conservatory, where she trained on cello with Yves Potrel, singing with Patrice Baudry and chamber music on various repertoires and in different groups.

 After obtaining the Diploma of Musical Studies (DEM) in Cello and Chamber Music, she continued her apprenticeship with Professor Marie-Paule Milone, first at the Conservatoire de Rueil-Malmaison where she obtained, at the end of the first year, the Prix d’Excellence, and then at the PSPBB (Paris Boulogne-Billancourt Superior Pole) in 2015. At the PSPBB, Eleonore will also receive the teachings of Éric Picard, principal cello of the Paris Orchestra.

During these three years of double-curricula (Licence of Musicology at the Sorbonne and National Diploma Superior of Professional Musician), she will perform regularly in chamber music at the conservatory but also as a quartet at the Philharmonie de Paris (on the occasion of the Prelude Concerts), in duets at the Museum of the City of Music and the Théâtre des Abbesses, in various projects.

She also participates in numerous orchestral series with, among others, the PSPBB orchestra (Philharmonie de Paris, Théâtre du Châtelet, La Seine Musicale), the Prometheus orchestra (Theatre of the Champs-Élysées with the National Ballet of Canada, La Seine Musicale for “The Summers of Dance“), the JOEHB (Young European Orchestra Hector Berlioz), the ensemble Les Siècles and François- Xavier Roth.

Éléonore Bernhardt founded with Héloïse-Bertrand Oléari (pianist) and Raphael Pogam (clarinetist) the trio Oriolus and the ensemble was invited in 2018 to the Colmar International Festival.

Michaela Hrabânkova is a versatile soloist and chamber music musician, passionate about standard repertoire as well as contemporary works.
Born in Prague, she currently lives and works in Paris.

Her musical education started in Prague, with the soloist of National Theater of Prague Josef Vacek then at the Prague Conservatory with Professor F.X.Thuri. She left Prague to continue studying in Germany at the Hochschule für Musik in Karlsruhe with Professor Thomas Indermuhle. She completed her education with the Erasmus exchange program in the class of Jacques Tys at the Paris Conservatory CNSM. From 2007 to 2010 she got a scholarship from the “ Alvaro Gomez Music Foundation”. She was also supported by instruments producer “ F.Lorée”.

She gave recitals in many festivals around the world. In France( Festival de la Chaise-Dieu, Festival Hector Berlioz, European Meeting of Double Reeds), in Germany ( Rheingau Musik Festival), in Kosovo, in the Czech Republic, in Romania ( Festival of Young Talents), in Algeria or Argentina(Encuentro Oboistas Buenos Aires).

In 2001, Michaela won the 2nd prize of the Czech Radio Competition “ Concertino Praga”. She was invited by the European Organisation of Music Competitions for Youth/EMCY/ to perform on a concert tour through Europe. During past 3 years she was a member of french wind quintette “ Le Concert Impromptu” which is sponsored by the French  Ministry of Culture. From 2014 she has been a member of “ Ensemble Sequentiae” and Orchestra “ Les Découvertes”.

She recorded the CD” French Music” with “ The concert Impromptu”. In 2013 she recorded for the Czech radio “ Cesky Rozhlas” concerto for oboe and small orchestra by Jan Rybar. She also recorded a CD with the guitarist Gabriel Bianco for Ad Vitam Records( Harmonia Mundi)

Michaela is regularly invited to give masterclasses in France, Romania(Gheorghe Dima Music Academy în Cluj-Napoca) or in Czech Republic (Prague Academy of Music, Janacek Academy of Musical Arts in Brno, Prague Conservatory, the Conservatory of Pardubice).
Since 2013 she has been teaching at the Mstislav Rostropovich Conservatory in Maisons Laffitte.

Racha Rizk was born in Damascus(Syria). At the age of 12 , she won first prize in the “Syrian Pioneers” contest and went on to participate in many concerts and festivals open to young artists.

She successfully completed her musical training at the Higher Institute of Music in Damascus under the direction of famous teachers, including Mme Galina Khaldieva.

She graduated in 2002 in “ Damascus Institut Supérieur de Musique “ trained by the famous Natalia Kiritchinka.

She has interpreted some of opera’s major roles, including  Suzana in Le Nozze di Figaro-Mozart, Michela in Carmen- Bizet at the Damascus Opera House, Jumana in the Arabic opera Ibn, Sina in Dido and Aeneas – Purcell and in Gianni Schicchi by Puccini, Nancy in musical show Oliver Twist as well as singing lieder with virtuoso Syrian pianists, Ghazwan Zerekli and Chaden Yafi.

Religious music : Handel’s Messiah, Vivaldi’s Gloria, Stabat Mater. She works with the Contrasto Armonico Ensemble in Damascus and, in Amsterdam, is performing in a programme of madrigals and other Baroque pieces , from Monteverdi to Handel ( Italian Cantatas).

Ghada Shbeir was born in Lebanon. She studied the origin of Arabic Music and graduated from the University of Kaslik and has a Masters Degree in Musical Sciences and a diploma in oriental singing. She is also a specialist in ethnomusicology. Today she teaches oriental singing, and she is working on research concerning Syriac music at the University of Holy Spirit – Lebanon.  Also, she is preparing for her PHD in Musical Science. Ghada considers that learning and teaching require a greater conscious effort, while performing on stage is carried out unconsciously where the singer’s voice is derived from a large depository of all the things he has learned or heard.

Ghada Shbeir has been studying music since she was a little girl, and she has always had a passion for classical Arabic music. She faced many difficulties during her studies since the required reference books were not easily available, and the recordings were very rare. However, she had made up her mind even as a young child to dedicate her talent in singing to promote the Arabic classical songs and musical compositions because she felt that it’s important for us to honor the past, for this is where contemporary Arabic music and all other strains originate from.

Ghada Shbeir has learned all forms (Qawaleb) of the Arabic music beginning with the Taqtooka, Monologue, Dialogue, Mouachah, Mawal and the Poem. According to her, the challenge of performing the Urab (ornaments in singing), the final closing of the musical segments, the Taqaseem, improvisations, Maqamat and rhythms nourished her passion for classical Arabic music. The more she learned about subtle nuances and the special qualities of the traditional music, the more she craved to be a master at it. Ghada Shbeir considers that music has richer areas of specialization than any other field.

Her music is about the soul, it’s about power, beautiful lyrics and untainted poetry for creators who were, and still are, iconic literary figures from the Arab world.

In the year 2007, Ghada released her first CD entitled “Mouachahat”. Through this CD, she breathed a new life into a one thousand year-old form of Arabic music that was close to extinction.

In 1997, she was awarded the first prize at the Best Arabic Song Competition in Egypt. She was also awarded the BBC World Music Award for both the Middle East and North Africa for her CD entitled “Mouachahat” in 2007.

In addition to that, she won the first prize international award for the interpretation of Andalousian chants (Mouachahat).

Ghada Shbeir has published two books. The first is a study of the Arabo-Andalusian singing tradition “The Muwashah after the Cairo Caucus of 1932”and the second is a research on the music of Sayyed Darwish “The Muwachahat and Adwar of Sayyed Darwish”.

Soprano Dima Bawab was born in 1981 in Jordan to Palestinian parents. She became interested in music at an early age and began learning piano and classical dance at the age of 4 at the National Conservatory of Music (King Hussein Foundation) in Amman. 

She chose to devote herself to lyrical singing and began her studies at the CNSMDP. In 2006, during a Franco-Palestinian musical project, she performed with French and Jordanian artists in Mozart’s The Theatre Director and Weber’s Abu Assan. In 2007, she participated in Mozart’s The Abduction from the Seraglio in Vannes and Handel’s Alcina in an artistic collaboration with the City of Music of Paris. She was featured at the Aix-en-Provence Festival in 2008 in the demanding roles of Fire, Princess and Rossignol in Ravel’s L’Enfant et les sortilèges .

2009 is particularly rich for the soprano since after The Marriage of Figaro at Wilton’s Music Hall in London, she played Lucy in Menotti’s Phone in Palestine and Jordan. She is also Lois Lane in Cole Porter’s musical Kiss me, Kate at London’s Cadogan Hall. In 2010, she performed at the Opéra Comique en Yniold in Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande ,under the baton of Sir John Eliot Gardiner.

In 2011, Dima Bawab took on the roles of Papagena and Pamina in Mozart’s The Magic Flute directed by Peter Brook for a world tour: Paris, Bremen, London, Luxembourg and New York among others. In 2014, she achieved great success in the title role of Zémire and Azor de Grétry at the Royal Opera house in Wallonia. She reprised her role as Yniold in Pelléas et Mélisande in 2015 in Zagreb. That year, Dima Bawab took her first steps in Montpellier with the roles of Fire, Princess and Nightingale in The Child and the Spells. She then made her debut at the Opera d’Angers Nantes as the Sandman and the Rose Fairy in Humperdinck’s Hunsel and Gretel. In 2016, she appropriated the role of the maid of Medea de Cherubini in Dijon. The soprano works her Mozartian repertoire with her debut in The Great Mass in Ut minor under the direction of Nayer Nagui in Cairo. In 2017, she is The Love in Orpheus and Eurydice of Gluck in Avignon. The following year, she sang Sophie in Massenet’s Werther in Nancy 

During the 2018/2019 season, Dima Bawab will play Berta in The Barber of Seville (Rossini)in December in Toulon and then she will play Suzanne in Les Saltimbanques (Ganne) in Avignon.

Soprano of Malagasy origin, she embodies the first roles in operas on international and French stages :  Cairo, Damascus and Algiers Operas, Xiamen Theatre (China), Châtelet Theater (Paris), Opera of the  Rhine, Opera Garnier, Auditorium of the 3000 in Lyon, where she sang, among others, the title roles of the Countess (Marriage of Figaro), Donna Anna, Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), Fiordiligi (Cosi fan Tutte), Dido (Dido and Aeneas), Tosca, Aida, Leonora (Il Trovatore), Abigail (Nabucco), Norma, Violetta (La Traviata), Santuzza (Cavalleria Rusticana), Madame Butterfly, Senta (The Flying Dutchman), Suor Angelica.

J-F. Zygel asked her to sing Olivier Messiaen’s “Les Poèmes pour Mi” at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris.

She is also fond of sacred music, of which she has interpreted the most beautiful works written for soprano: Mozart’s “Mass in C minor”, Verdi’s “Requiem”, Rossini’s “Stabat Mater”, Dvorak and Pergolesi, Brahms’ “Requiem”…

She performs at international festivals in Poland, Italy, Gabon and Yalta.

Her extensive and eclectic repertoire has led her to collaborate with directors (Jean-Michel Ribes at the Théâtre du Rond-Point) and prestigious orchestras (Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse, Orchestre de l’Opéra de Lyon, Orchestre des Talens Lyriques with Christophe Rousset).

Among her main and recent performances: premiere of melodies by Florentine Mulsant at the Festival “Musiciennes en Martinique”, premiere of the opera “Élise et le Fantôme” by Thierry Pélicant in Le Havre, premiere of the oratorio “Au Nom du Père” by Tarik Benouarka at the church of St Eustache, Puccini recital at the Salle Gaveau under the direction of M. Lebel, recital with François René Duchable, concert for the celebration of G. Fauré at the Istanbul Opera, concert for the G. Verdi celebration “Aida” in Rome, Villa Borghese.

An original, generous and endearing personality who seduced the director Philippe Lanfranchi: he made her the main character of his documentary, “Quai de Scène”, broadcast several times on the TV channels Arte, Muzzik and Mezzo.

Born in Cairo in 1983, Ragaa Eldin completed his musical training at the Cairo Conservatory where he graduated in the class of Tenor Sobhi Bidair.

In 2007 he took part in the master class of the Soprano Caroline Dumas at the École Normale de Musique in Paris, followed by several concerts.

In 2008 he became a member of Cairo Opera where he will have the opportunity to interpret several main roles : Butterfly (Yamadori), Lakmé (Hadji), Nozze di Figaro (Don Basilio), Carmen (Dancair), Aida (Messaggiero), Traviata (Rodolfo), L’elisir d’amore (Nemorino), Zauberflöte (Tamino), It Trovatore (Manrico)

In 2010 he was noticed in the semi-final in the  international competition  “Wilhelm Stenhammar” in Sweden.

From 2008 to 2013 he participated in the ” Egyptian-Finnish musical bridge”. It was subsequently invited by the Savonlinna Academy to participate to the master class of Prof. Tom Krause and EijaTolbo. 

In 2014 he participated in the laboratory of Spaziomusica in Italy and was chosen for the Manrico role in Il Trovatore  at the Teatro Mancinelli in Orvieto  under the direction of Maestra Gabriella Ravazzi and Maestro Maurizio Arena.

The same year he graduated “ lyrical art diploma” at Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris.

He was finalist in 2015 in “Spazio Musica” contest in Italy, won the audience first prize and Bologne Teatro prize and received his “perfectionnement” diploma in Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris.

Ragaa Eldin sings as a soloist in many concerts in Cairo, Amman, Oman, Finland, Italy and France.…

A tenor with an Egyptian father and italian mother, Georges Wanis has a solid musical education : first in Cairo with Violette Makar, then with Madame Caroline Dumas at the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris, starting in 1995.

He won first prize at the singing competition organised by the Egyptian Ministry of Culture in 1995. First prize at the Leopold Bellan competition in 1999 in Paris and the Œuvres des Saints Anges Lyrical Prize in Paris in 2000.

Georges Wanis regularly performs major repertory roles and sings in oratorios and festivals. Bel Canto is his field of predilection : Bach, Schumann, Berlioz, Cimarosa, Mozart, Saint-Saens, Honneger, Britten, Monteverdi…

On stage, he has played Don Ottavio in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Nadir in Bizet’s Les Pêcheurs de Perles, Alfredo in Verdi’s Traviata, Nicias in Massenet’s Thaïs, the Duke of Mantova in Verdi’s Rigoletto…

With his powerful and warm voice, very adapted to the Italian repertoire, this baritone has already embodied the main Verdian roles (Rigoletto, Germont, Il conte di Luna, Amonasro, Nabucco or Iago), also exploring very widely the operas of Puccini, since he interpreted Marcello, Scarpia and Ping, in the pharaonic staging of Turandot by Chinese director Zhang Yimou presented at the France Stadium,  under the direction of Jànos Acs.

In the French repertoire, let us mention very beautiful incarnations of the high priest of Dagon in Samson and Delilah, Escamillo in Carmen, Ourrias in Mireille or Mephistopheles in Faust.

He also sang Adam in Massenet’s Eve in 2003, at the Protestant Temple of the Oratory of the Louvre (recording published by Malibran), a performance praised by the critic Bruno Peeters who evokes a “baritone with a superb legato” on Forum Opera.

Marc Souchet has also taken part in several editions of Opéra en Plein Air (in France and Belgium), participating in the 2007 production of The Barber of Seville by Julia Migenes (where he is Bartolo under the musical direction of Philippe Hui) or that of The Magic Flute by Caroline Huppert, in 2006, (in the role of Papageno).

He is also involved in the contemporary repertoire with the creation of Chrystel Marchand’s Requiem for a Deportee (in Beauvais Cathedral), Eric Darrigrand’s L’Appel de Jean (St Etienne du Mont Paris) or the role of Karl in Minjung Woo’s opera Shanti-Ntra (for the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique de Paris).

We should also mention Songs of the sea by Charles Villiers Standford with the Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Goeffrey Styles or the role of Don Quixote in El Retablo by Maese Pedro by Manuel de Falla under the direction of Charles Dutoit, at the Miyazaki Festival (Japan).

www.marc-souchet.fr

Assem Nagaty taught The Arabic Theatre course at the Ohio State University, The Department of Theatre. He was the head of the National Centre of Theatre, Music, and Folk Arts. He organized two international conferences under the name of Africa in the Heart of Egypt and Censorship and Theatre.  He is now teaching Acting and Directing at the Academy of Arts.

He got his PhD in May 2011. Assem has a bachelor degree in Mechanical Engineering from Cairo University, before getting his second degree in Theatre from the Academy of Arts, Acting and directing Department. After completing a Post Graduate Diploma in Stage Directing, Assem successfully defended his Master in Stage Directing.

As a director, Assem directed many plays in Egypt and in the United States as well such as Viva Egypt by Mohsem Meselhi, House of Flesh by Yusuf Idris, The Sultan’s Dilemma by Tawfiq Al-Hakim, Is it Real That There aren’t  Any Problems! By Metwali Hamed, Will Leave Next Stop by Mohsen Meselhi, Hamletmachine by Hiener Mullar and many other plays.

As an actor, he played many roles on stage and in front of camera. Additionally, he participated in many theatrical festivals all over the world as an actor and as a stage director such as : National Theatre Festival/Algeria, Theatre and Social Movement Festival /Jordan, Mahaba Festival /Syria, Kart-age Festival for Theatre /Tunisia, Avignon Festival / France.

After obtaining her master’s degree in modern literature in 1999, passionate about theatre, Pauline Moingeon Valles entered the Francis Poulenc Conservatory (Paris 16th) under the direction of Dominique Frot and Jeoffrey Carrey, then Stéphane Auvray Nauroy.

In 2002, she joined the ESAD (School of Art Dramatics in Paris) directed by Jean-Claude Cotillard. She left it to set up her own company, Zineb Urban Theatre.

 Since 2010, she has been attending the Workshops of the International Institute of Performing Arts with Scott Williams, who heads the Impulse Company France, of which she is a member.

 A theatre actress above all, she has distinguished herself in major roles in the classical repertoire such as Phèdre or Macbeth. Present also in the cinema, she shoots under the direction of Alexandre Astier or Josiane Balasko.

For several years, she has lent her voice to the dubbing of films, television series and documentaries.

Theatre :

• 2016: Phèdre by Racine, directed by Elise Touchon
• 2015-2016: Alexandre Astier’s Exoconference, Swan (2014-2015)
• 2015: The Caprices of Marianne by Alfred de Musset, directed by Scott Williams
• 2012: Macbeth by William Shakespeare,directed by  Marine Assaiante
• 2009-2012: The Last Journey of Gabi by Mohamed Habassi
• 2008-2009: LukaLila de Suzie Bastien, directed by Aurélie Van Den  Daele
• 2008: Hearts En Loc’ by Pascal Loison, directed by Pascal Loison
• 2005: Harold Pinter’s Lover ,directed by  Jean-Antoine  Marciel

Daniele Meyrieux trained at the Conservatory of Lyon and then Paris in the class of René Simon, at the Actor’s Studio with Andréas Voutsinas and obtained a master’s degree in Theatre at the Institute of Theatre Studies of the Sorbonne Nouvelle.

 She plays Bernanos, Claudel, Marivaux, Montherlant, Shakespeare and most recently Jean Luc Lagarce in “The Rules of Savoir-living in the Modern Society”.

 En 1982, she created, with Denise Rakovsky, La Compagnie le Toucan-Théâtre in Vanves.

She stages Ilias Driss (first prize on Radio France International), Lars Noren, Harold Pinter, Xavier Durringer, “Dit-il” by Christopher Mierejewski in France and abroad.

In 2015, Aiat Fayez, a French-speaking author, published by L’Arche, entrusted her with the staging of one of his plays “Perceptions” which will benefit from the support of the National Theatre Centre.

 “Playing is capturing in one’s daily life, the most subtle infiltrations of the theatre of life,it is to be in one’s body, in one’s language, in a thought that  constructe a situation. It’s the afterlife of repetition”  Danièle Meyrieux

letoucantheatre.com

Born in Antelias in Lebanon, Gaby Odeimi was initiated in music in early childhood. He studied singing, piano and oriental keyboard. War forced him to leave his country and he continued his studies in Paris with Middle Eastern music : theory, singing, percussion and keyboard.

He began his first tour with Zyriab, a mediaeval Arabian music group, in which he sang and played percussion in numerous European festivals such as the Festival of Countries from the Mediterranean Area in Bonn.

He has mainly developed his career as an oriental keyboard soloist and is called upon to perform at numerous events and concerts in France and abroad.

He creates his own compositions, which reveal a deep sensitivity at East and West.

In 2008 he founded the Orchestre Oriental de Paris, which performs at the ASIEM Theater and Cabaret Sauvage.

Utku, born in Turkey,  is already a popular and well known dancer, a beautiful and charismatic performer that shines in all the productions in which he participates.

Trained at the National Conservatoire of Antalya in Ankara and then the State Conservatoire at the University of Istanbul (ballet, modern ballet, contemporary dance and jazz), he completed his training at the International Dance Academy in Paris.

A Corps Et À Cris at the Institute of the Arab World, 2013

Le Grand Bal Masqué de Versailles, choreographed by Kamel Wali-2013

European Youth Ballet soloist in Paris, collaboration with Claude Brumachon, Thierry Malandain and Floriane Blitz, 2012/13

Béjart’s Ballet Bolero at the Palais des Congres, 2011

Spanish Swiss, born in Neuchâtel in 1986, Rebecca trained in Neuchâtel in Switzerland and then in Paris at the International Academy of Dance.

She completed her training with contemporary jazz and dance workshops with well known choreographers in New York and Los Angeles.

An acclaimed interpreter, she appears in different shows and ballets.

Le Grand Bal Masqué, choreographed by Kamel Wali, 2013
Events at l’Eglise Américaine de Paris, choreographed by Chris McCarthy, 2012
Soloist with the MDC Company, 2004-2006

French choreographic artist, Antony Delamotte is a powerful, elegant and graceful dancer, and one immediately feels his sensibilities and influences, at the same time urban, contemporary and classical.

Trained at the International Academy of Dance in Paris (classical, jazz and contemporary) and Geneva (ADC school and Extravadanse), Antony is a popular dancer noted for his technical qualities, his eclecticism, his rich vocabulary of dance and interpretation qualities.

He is noted in many productions, such as Robert Carsen’s musicals at Théâtre du Chatelet or the productions of Disney and Pixar.

Gilbert Désveaux studied drama in Paris before founding his own production company, dedicated to contemporary creation.

First producer and actor and then stage director , he staged since 1993 more than 20 new or for the first time translated to french plays : plays by Jean-Marie Besset with whom he created NAVA festival in Limoux and also many plays of anglo-saxon writers as Oscar Wilde, Tennessee Williams, Alan Bennett, Michael Frayn, Moïses Kaufman, Austin Pendleton, Richard Greenberg, Will Eno…

From 2010 to 2014 he was director and stage director of Théâtre des 13 Vents, CDN Languedoc-Roussillon in Montpellier.

In 2016 he was nominated director of the Blanc-Mesnil Theater.

Since 2019, he has been director of L’Opera en Plein Air and was appointed director of the Alexandre-Dumas Theater in  Saint Germain en Laye in 2021.

Independent Choreographer, Dance instructor and Costume designer

Adriana Mortelliti was born in Reggio, Calabria and completed her training as a dancer and dance teacher at the professional school dance of Milan. In addition, she attended the Academy of Fine arts in Milan where she studied the full range of painting.

Following her training she was hired as a dancer in the “Movers Dance Company” in Zurich, the Augsburg’s theater ballet, the Vienna Chamber Opera and was invited to dance at the Scala in Milan and the Zurich Opera Theater.

As a modern dance teacher and choreographic assistant, she worked for the Augsburg Theater, the festival of Morbish, the Wielki Theater in Lodz, the Wroclaw Opera in Krakow, Staatstheater Cottbus, Dresden theater, the Berlin ballet, the Carlo Felice Theater in Geneva and the Ballet of Milan. 

She is the choreographer for the Ballet of Milan and the Theater of Cottbus.

She has won many international choreography and dance competitions in Japan, Italy and Germany.