March 2023

Founded in 1989, the Ensemble Orchestral Contemporain was one of the first independent French ensembles dedicated to contemporary music. Through its creations and tours in France and abroad, the EOC has taken a special place in the musical landscape.
It is recognised as an essential interpreter of 20th and 21st century music and an important player in musical creation, trusted by composers of all generations. Today, the EOC has over 700 works in its repertoire, including 300 premieres. Constituted as an instrumental ensemble whose musicians can also play the role of soloist, the EOC brings together some fifteen instrumentalists under the artistic and musical direction of Bruno Mantovani.

The Ensemble offers concerts in medium and large formations, promotes the pure instrumental concert but also the mixing of instrumental and electroacoustic sources and calls upon other imaginary worlds (dance, opera, literature, visual arts). Covering more than a hundred years of music, the Ensemble has an international reputation and contributes to the influence of its home region, the Loire, by responding to invitations from major artistic and cultural venues in France and abroad.

In the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, the EOC is also committed to mediation and transmission by building training, discovery and creation projects with its local partners. By addressing audiences of all ages and backgrounds, the EOC shares music with as many people as possible and contributes fully to the artistic and cultural life of its region.
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The Ensemble Orchestral Contemporain is subsidised by the Ministry of Culture and Communication
– DRAC Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, the Département de la Loire and the city of Saint-Étienne. the Loire and the city of Saint-Étienne. It is supported by the SACEM, the SPEDIDAM and the Centre National de la Musique.

Since 2022, the EOC has been in residence at the Opera of the city of Saint-Étienne.

site Ensemble Orchestral Contemporain

Constance Luzzati has made expanding the harp repertoire through transcription of early music and the commission of new contemporary works a lifetime ambition. In 2014, she completed a doctorate in performance (CNSMDP and Université Paris- Sorbonne) focusing on transcriptions for harp of 18th century French harpsichord repertoire. She has adapted all of Jean-Philippe Rameau’s works for harpsichord, but also transcribed part of the pieces by Louis and François Couperin, Pancrace Royer, Jean-Baptiste Forqueray, Jean-Jacques Duplhy, Domenico Scarlatti and Johann Sebastian Bach.
A collaboration with several composers (Bruno Mantovani and Édith Lejet, whose works she has premiered) has enriched her relationship with living contemporary music. If her soloist activity is devoted to the renewal of the repertoire through ancient transcription and contemporary creation, her chamber music activity is more focused on the heart of the repertoire composed for harp, from Fauré to Berio, through Debussy, Ravel or Sohy. She has recorded several CDs devoted to these works: Normandie et Impressionnisme (Skarbo, 2010), with the soloists of the Rouen Opera, and more recently Charlotte Sohy, composer of the Belle-Époque (La boîte à pépites, 2022), with the flutist Mathilde Calderini and the Hermes Quartet.

Constance Luzzati has had the opportunity to share her favorite repertoire with the public in numerous Parisian halls (Philharmonie – Cité de la musique, Maison de la radio, Petit Palais), French festivals (Musicales d’Assy, Musique en chemin, Folles journées de Nantes, Flâneries de Reims, Festival de Besançon), as well as abroad (Italy, Spain, Portugal, Great Britain, Netherlands, Hungary, Japan, United States). She has won two international first prizes, and is a laureate or finalist in four other international competitions, including the Concert Artists Guild in New York, which is open to all instruments. In France, she has been distinguished by the Avant-scènes du CNSMDP, Cultures France, and the Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet Foundation for Vocation.

The harpsichordist Kenneth Weiss and the harpists Isabelle Moretti, Germaine Lorenzini, Françoise Netter and Mara Galassi were her mentors. Their teaching was complemented by that of many others at the CNSMDP where, before her doctorate and more advanced studies, she followed the complete curriculum of the classes of harp, chamber music, history of music, analysis, musical culture and aesthetics.
Constance is passionate about enabling better communication about music. She regularly gives lectures for all kinds of audiences at the Philharmonie de Paris as well as in the University’s community and rural festivals. She teaches musical culture in conservatoires from beginners to advanced students. She supervises students for masters degrees, and has been a professor of music history at the Conservatoire de Paris – CNSMDP since 2021.
More than this, Constance is very interested in the encounter and exchange between musical repertoire and theology. Since 2014 she has made this the focus of her studies at the University of Geneva. She has also developed her understanding of the world of theatre at the Cours Florent. This has allowed her to work on the productions of Emmanuel Demarcy-Motta and Jacques Vincey, and also to create shows combining music, text and circus arts.

site Constance Luzzati