Ensemble Pygmalion

Founded by Raphaël Pichon in 2006, Pygmalion is the product of the union between a choir and a period-instrument orchestra. Its repertoire is founded on the connections that link Bach to Mendelssohn, Schütz to Brahms, and Rameau to Gluck and Berlioz.

Currently in residence at the Opéra National de Bordeaux, the ensemble appears regularly at the leading venues in France (Philharmonie de Paris, Opéra Royal de Versailles, Aix-en-Provence, Beaune, Toulouse, Saint-Denis, La Chaise-Dieu, Royaumont, Nancy) and internationally (Cologne, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, London, Beijing, Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Barcelona, Brussels).

Among its recent projects to have earned public and critical attention are J. S. Bach’s Köthener Trauermusik and Passions, the late versions of Rameau’s tragédies lyriques, Mozart’s C minor Mass and a programme of his music for the Weber sisters, Stravaganza d’Amore (the birth of opera at the court of the Medici), Mendelssohn’s Elias, and a choral trilogy devoted to the canon from the Romantic era to the twentieth century.

Pygmalion also works regularly with stage directors and collaborators including Romeo Castelluci, Katie Mitchell, and Aurélien Bory and has recorded for Harmonia Mundi since 2014. The ensemble’s discography has received prizes in France and abroad, including a Gramophone Award in 2022 for Bach’s St. Matthew’s Passion, an Edison Klassiek Award 2016, a Grand Prix de l’Académie Charles Cros for 2016, and Best Classical Recording 2016 on Forbes.

As a result of the pandemic, in July 2020, Pygmalion launched a new festival based in Bordeaux, an for classical music, around the themes of musical conveyance and transmisson.

In September 2023, Askonas Holt were delighted to bring Ensemble Pygmalion for the BBC Proms for a sold-out performance of Mozart's Requiem.