Born in 1988, Benoît Babel studied at the conservatories of Bordeaux and Rueil-Malmaison, and then at the conservatoire de Paris in the class of Noëlle Spieth. Benoît Babel teaches the harpsichord at the conservatoire de Versailles and participates as faculty at the Académie baroque international du Périgord noir (direction Iñaki Encina Oyón). In 2014, with the ensemble Zaïs that he directs from the harpsichord and in collaboration with Paul Goussot, he recorded a program of concertos for organ and orchestra by G.F. Handel and J.P. Rameau. This recording is available at paraty.fr. With the violinist and conductor Johannes Pramsohler, he participated in the première of the opera Croesus by Reinhardt Kaiser (2020, Paris, Théâtre de l’Athenée) and Theodora by Handel (2021, Buenos Aires, Teatro Colón).
Ensemble Vedado
The Vedado Ensemble takes various forms, assembling singers and musicians according to the repertoire but always under the direction of the viola da gamba player Ronald Martin Alonso. The ensemble specialises in music from the baroque period as well as in contemporary music played on baroque instruments. Its first project in 2011 centered on the work of the Cuban composer Esteban Salas, kapellmeister at Santiago de Cuba Cathedral from 1764 until his death in 1803. Several projects highlighting the viola da gamba followed and gave rise to two recordings: « À la Marésienne » (K617 label) and « Les Folies Humaines », both of works by the composer Marin Marais. The Ensemble Vedado is a frequent guest at festivals in France including Les Grands Concerts in Lyon, the Festival Baroque du Mont-Blanc, the Festival Format Raisins, Sinfonia in Périgord, the Journées musicales d’Automne in Souvigny and Les Méridiennes in Tours, as well as abroad: Festival du Museo de la Citta, Cremona (Italy), Midi-Minimes, Brussels (Belgium), Festival de música antigua Esteban Salas, Havana (Cuba), Festival de musica da camara, Almaty (Kazakhstan), Teatro Nacional, Quito (Ecuador), Festival de música Antigua, Lima (Peru). The ensemble also performs regularly on French radio in programmes produced by Gaëlle Le Gallic, Xavier Carrère, Clément Rochefort and Edouard Fouré Caul-Futy
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