Thierry Gregoire
Encyclopedia
Biography
Gregoire studied at the Ecole Nationale De Musique - Charleville Mezieres, where he won 1st Prize in the class of Mme Josette Barreaud. He also studied under James Bowman, Paul EsswoodPaul Esswood
Paul Esswood is an English countertenor. He is best known for his singing in Bach cantatas and the operas of Handel and Monteverdi. Along with his countrymen Alfred Deller and James Bowman, he led the revival of countertenor singing in modern times.Esswood was born in West Bridgford, England. He...
, Henri Ledroit, Margreet Honig and Hubert Weller. At the suggestion of Henri Ledroit he auditioned as a singer in Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme
Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme
Le Bourgeois gentilhomme is a five-act comédie-ballet—a play intermingled with music, dance and singing—by Molière, first presented on 14 October 1670 before the court of Louis XIV at the Château of Chambord by Molière's troupe of actors...
by Molière
Molière
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, known by his stage name Molière, was a French playwright and actor who is considered to be one of the greatest masters of comedy in Western literature...
and Lully
Jean-Baptiste Lully
Jean-Baptiste de Lully was an Italian-born French composer who spent most of his life working in the court of Louis XIV of France. He is considered the chief master of the French Baroque style. Lully disavowed any Italian influence in French music of the period. He became a French subject in...
at Comédie Francaise
Comédie-Française
The Comédie-Française or Théâtre-Français is one of the few state theaters in France. It is the only state theater to have its own troupe of actors. It is located in the 1st arrondissement of Paris....
. He went on to sing in over 350 performances of the work. He then came to the attention of conductors such as Jean-Claude Malgoire
Jean-Claude Malgoire
Jean-Claude Malgoire is a French conductor.He was born in Avignon, France and studied music locally and at the Paris Conservatory. His early musical career was as an oboist....
, Christophe Rousset
Christophe Rousset
Christophe Rousset is a French harpsichordist and conductor, specializing in the performance of baroque music on period instruments.-Biography:...
, Jonathan Darlington
Jonathan Darlington
Jonathan Darlington is a British conductor and the Music Director of the Duisburg Philharmonic Orchestra and Vancouver Opera...
, and Marc Minkowski
Marc Minkowski
Marc Minkowski is a French conductor of classical music, especially known for his interpretations of French Baroque works. His mother is American, and his father was Alexandre Minkowski, a Polish-French professor of pediatrics and one of the founders of neonatology...
. Under Minkowski he has sung the title role in Alessandro Stradella
Alessandro Stradella
Alessandro Stradella was an Italian composer of the middle baroque. He enjoyed a dazzling career as a freelance composer, writing on commission, collaborating with distinguished poets, producing over three hundred works in a variety of genres.-Life:Not much is known about his early life, but he...
's oratorio
Oratorio
An oratorio is a large musical composition including an orchestra, a choir, and soloists. Like an opera, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias...
San Giovanni Battista, performed in Handel
George Frideric Handel
George Frideric Handel was a German-British Baroque composer, famous for his operas, oratorios, anthems and organ concertos. Handel was born in 1685, in a family indifferent to music...
's Dixit Dominus
Dixit Dominus (Handel)
Dixit Dominus is a psalm setting by George Friederic Handel . It uses the Latin text of Psalm 110 , which begins with the words Dixit Dominus ....
and Monteverdi
Claudio Monteverdi
Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi – 29 November 1643) was an Italian composer, gambist, and singer.Monteverdi's work, often regarded as revolutionary, marked the transition from the Renaissance style of music to that of the Baroque period. He developed two individual styles of composition – the...
's L'incoronazione di Poppea
L'incoronazione di Poppea
L'incoronazione di Poppea is an Italian baroque opera comprising a prologue and three acts, first performed in Venice during the 1642–43 carnival season. The music, attributed to Claudio Monteverdi, is a setting of a libretto by Giovanni Francesco Busenello...
as well as singing the role of Coryphée in Minkowski's 1999 recording of Gluck's Armide
Armide (Gluck)
Armide is an opera by Christoph Willibald Gluck, his fifth for the Parisian stage and the composer's own favourite among his works. It was first performed in Paris at the Académie Royale on 23 September 1777....
.
Amongst the music festivals where he has appeared are the Aix-en-Provence Festival
Aix-en-Provence Festival
The festival international d'art lyrique is an annual international music festival which takes place each summer in Aix-en-Provence, principally in the month of July. Devoted mainly to opera, it also includes concerts of orchestral, chamber, vocal and solo instrumental music.-Establishment:The...
, Festival de Beaune
Beaune
Beaune is the wine capital of Burgundy in the Cote d'Or department in eastern France. It is located between Paris and Geneva.Beaune is one of the key wine centers in France and the annual wine auction of the Hospices de Beaune is the primary wine auction in France...
, Festival d'Ile de France (Paris), Festival d’Art Sacré de la Ville de Paris, and the Wiener Festwochen
Vienna Festival
The Wiener Festwochen is a cultural festival in Vienna that takes place every year for five or six weeks in May and June.The Wiener Festwochen was established in 1951, when Vienna was still occupied by the four Allies...
(Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
).
He also appeared on the international stage in productions in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
, Tokyo, Paris as well as in concerts in Europe, Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
, India, and Australia.
In 2003 he appeared in a series of recitals in Europe with the mezzo-soprano
Mezzo-soprano
A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above...
Magdalena Kožená
Magdalena Kožená
Magdalena Kožená is a Czech mezzo-soprano.In 2003, Kožená was awarded the title of Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government...
. In March 2004, the French music magazine Classica featured him as a Classica RTL
RTL (French radio)
In France, RTL is a popular nation-wide commercial radio network owned by the RTL Group.In 1931, Radio Luxembourg, the public radio network from Luxembourg, was privatised. Beginning in 1946, it could be heard easily in France. Until the 1980s, only the French public radio networks could transmit...
young talent and included the RTL Discoveries CD Thierry Gregoire chante Vivaldi et Haendel
HANDEL
HANDEL was the code-name for the UK's National Attack Warning System in the Cold War. It consisted of a small console consisting of two microphones, lights and gauges. The reason behind this was to provide a back-up if anything failed....
. Since 2005 Gregoire has also been a voice teacher
Voice teacher
A voice teacher or singing teacher is a musical instructor who trains adults and children in the art of singing. This generally involves training in breath control and support, proper tone production, pitch control and musical intonation, proper formation of vowels and consonants as well as...
at Ecole Nationale De Musique - Charleville Mezieres.
Awards
- 1998 Prize winner - International Competition "Giovan Battista Velluti" - New Voices for Opera
- 2001 Czech Crystal Award, Golden Prague International Television Festival - Best recording of a concert or stage performance (opera, operetta, ballet, dance, musical), Magdalena Kožená and Thierry Gregoire Česká televizeCeská televizeČeská televize is the public television broadcaster in the Czech Republic, broadcasting four channels.- Czechoslovak Television :Television in Czechoslovakia started to take its first steps before World War II. However, before visible results could be achieved, all activities were interrupted by...
, Brno Television Studio, Czech Republic
Quotes
- "Thierry Gregoire has a rich, deep and moving mezzo voice " - Le Monde de la Musique
- "Thierry Gregoire has the ideal voice for Ottone" - Sergio Segalini, musicologist and former Artistic Director of La FeniceLa FeniceTeatro La Fenice is an opera house in Venice, Italy. It is one of the most famous theatres in Europe, the site of many famous operatic premieres. Its name reflects its role in permitting an opera company to "rise from the ashes" despite losing the use of two theatres...
Discography
- CD
- Monteverdi - Orfeo (Pastore) - Conductor: Jean-Claude Malgoire
- Haendel - Agrippina (Ottone) - Conductor: Jean-Claude Malgoire
- Vivaldi - Tito Manlio (Decio) - Conductor: Federico Maria Sardelli
- Vivaldi - Orlando Furioso (Ruggiero) - Conductor: Federico Maria Sardelli
- Gluck - Armide Conductor: Marc Minkowski
- Lully - Acis et Galatée - Conductor: Marc Minkowski
- Cavalli - Requiem - Conductor: Françoise Lasserre
- Palestrina - Madrigaux - Conductor: Françoise Lasserre
- Cavanna - Raphael, reviens!
- DVD
- Monteverdi - Incoronazione di Poppea - Conductor: Marc MinkowskiMarc MinkowskiMarc Minkowski is a French conductor of classical music, especially known for his interpretations of French Baroque works. His mother is American, and his father was Alexandre Minkowski, a Polish-French professor of pediatrics and one of the founders of neonatology...
, (Aix-en-Provence FestivalAix-en-Provence FestivalThe festival international d'art lyrique is an annual international music festival which takes place each summer in Aix-en-Provence, principally in the month of July. Devoted mainly to opera, it also includes concerts of orchestral, chamber, vocal and solo instrumental music.-Establishment:The...
) - Handel - Agrippina (Ottone) - Conductor: Jean-Claude Malgoire
- Monteverdi - Orfeo (Pastore) - Conductor: Jean-Claude Malgoire
- Monteverdi - Incoronazione di Poppea - Conductor: Marc Minkowski