Les Ambassadeurs

Jean Rondeau

was born in 1991. He has an ever-growing passion for baroque music since he started playing the harpsichord at the age of 6. He studied with Blandine Verlet for 10 years and he discovered the art of basso continuo at very early age. Later he started playing the piano and besides romantic repertoire he gives special attention to jazz, improvisation and composition. His teacher in this field is Frédéric Michel.

At the moment he is in the last year of his studies with Olivier Baumont, Blandine Rannou and Kenneth Weiss in the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris. He took part in master-classes with Christophe Rousset in Firenza and Sienna, Italy in 2008 and 2011.

He was awarded the First Prize of harpsichord at the Conservatory of Paris and of basso continuo at the Conservatory of Boulogne-Billancourt, as well as diplomas in counterpoint and composition.

Jean Rondeau teaches harpsichord and piano, and shares his time between Baroque, Classical and Jazz music, as well as philosophy and psychology.

Vega Montero

was born in Salamanca, Spain where she began her double bass studies. She moved to The Netherlands to specialize in violone and baroque double bass with Margaret Urquhart at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. In 2006 she obtained her diploma in Early Music, and in 2007 she obtained her modern double bass at Conservatory of Amsterdam with Peter Stotijn.

She was a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Spain. In 2007 she took part in the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment’s experience scheme and in 2008 and 2009 she was a member of European Union Baroque Orchestra. She has performed professionally with groups including the New Dutch Academy, L’Orfeo Barockorchester Linz, Al Ayre Espańol, Harmony of Nations, Orquesta Barroca de Granada, Academia 1750, Orquesta Barroca de Salamanca and Los Musicos de Su Alteza, touring Europe and playing in the festivals of Utrecht, Ansbach and Brussels, among others.

(Italy)

Allan Rasmussen trained at the Royal Danish Academy of Music
in Copenhagen, where he made his debut on organ and harpsichord
in 1993. Besides his work as an organist in Frederiksberg Church, he
is active as an organ soloist and chamber music player in several international contexts, for example with the ensembles Baroque Fever, Concerto Copenhagen and Arte dei Suonatori. He has also performed as
a soloist with a number of symphony orchestras in and outside Denmark. He was awarded the Artist’s Prize of the Danish Music Critics in 1999.

Manuel Granatiero was born in Naples in 1976. He began to study the flute at a very early age, attending the “Accademia di alto perfezionamento” in Pescara with Marzio Conti. In 1991 he was awarded the third prize at the international prize Undine. He then graduated from the consevatory O. Refice, receiving the first price of humanity at the “Accademia del Flauto Italiana” with Raymond Guiot. He studies with Alain Marion (Academie de Perfectionnement d’été, Nice), Irena Grafenauer (Mozarteum, Salzburg) and Angelo Persichilli (Accademia di S. Cecilia, Rome). In 1998 he begins to study the baroque and classical flute, first with Laura Potecorvo and in 1999 with Barthold Kuijken, Marc Hantai and Frank Theuns at the Koninklijk Conservatory in Brussels, from which he graduates 2004 with “honors”. In 2002-2004 he plays with different Youth Orchestras: “Academia Montis Regalis Giovani”, “Orchestre de l’Academie Baroque d’Ambronay” conducted by Christophe Rousset and “Jeune Orchestre Atlantique” conducted by Philippe Herrewege. He plays with some of the most important orchestras in Europe specialize on historical intsrtuments: Academia Montis Regalis (A.De Marchi), Gli Incogniti (A.Beyer), il Complesso Barocco (A. Curtis), Concerto Italiano (R.Alessandrini), la Chambre Philarmonique (E.Krivine), Le Cercle de l’ Harmonie (J. Rhorer), Al Ayre Espanol (E.L.Banzo), Ricercar Consort (P.Pierlot), la Venexiana (C.Cavina), Ausonia Ensemble (F.Haas), Auser Musici (C.Ipata), Les Concerts Lorrain, Harmony of Nations just to mention a few. He recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, Decca, Naive, Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, Dinamic, Virgin, Atma Classic and Stradivarius. Manuel Granatiero founded with Marco and Laura ‘Accademia Ottoboni’.

Georges Barthel started his musical studies at the age of 8. After graduating the Conservatoire National de Région in Strasbourg for both the modern and the baroque flutes, he decided to focus on historical performance practice and entered the Royal Conservatory in Brussels, were he studied the early flutes (from renaissance to romantic) with Barthold Kuijken and his assistants Frank Theuns and Marc Hantai. In 2002, he took part to the international competition “Musica Antiqua” in Bruges, Belgium, and was awarded the 4th prize as well as the prize of the audience. Two years later he ended his studies at the conservatory, passing his final exam with the highest distinction.

Georges Barthel has been playing in major festivals in Europe and Japan as member of several ensembles such as La Petite Bande (Sigiswald Kuijken), Anima Eterna (Jos van Immerseel), Ricercar Consort (Philippe Pierlot), Il Fondamento (Paul Dombrecht), Les Agrémens (Guy van Waas), Ausonia (Frédérick Haas & Mira Glodeanu), Das Neue Orchester (Christoph Spering), Collegium Cartusianum (Peter Neumann), La Chambre Philharmonique (Emmanuel Krivine), Les Musiciens du Louvre (Marc Minkowski), Les Talents Lyriques (Christophe Rousset), Arte dei Suonatori, Balthasar-Neumann-Ensemble (Thomas Hengelbrock), Holland Baroque Society and Le Cercle de l’Harmonie (Jérémie Rhorer).

His recordings include, among others, works by Rimsky-Korsakov, Borodine, Beethoven and Berlioz with Anima Eterna for the label Zig-Zag Territoires, Symphonies by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy and Beethoven with la Chambre Philharmonique (Naïve), Johann Sebastian Bach works with Ricercar Consort (Mirare) and Mozart’s Zauberflöte with René Jacobs and Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin (Harmonia Mundi).