Ensemble Les Meslanges, Thomas Van Essen and Volny Hostiou musical directors
- François Ménissier, grand orgue
- Cécile Dalmon, sexta pars
- Esther Labourdette, cantus
- Raphael Mas, quinta pars, cantus
- Damien Rivière, tenor
- Vincent Lièvre-Picard, tenor, contra
- Thomas Van Essen, bassus, tenor
- Florent Baffi, bassus
- Eva Godard, Sarah Dubus, cornets
- Claire McIntyre, Abel Rohrbach, Christiane Bopp, Arnaud Brétécher, sacqueboutes
- Volny Hostiou, serpent, bassus, tenor
Les Meslanges an ensemble of instrumental and vocal soloists created by Thomas Van Essen, driven by a passion for the diversity that early music offers. The fundamental aim of the ensemble is to put music into its historical and artistic context, through an exploration of its relationship to the art and litterature of its time. Several forms of concerts are used : « lecture concerts », reading out of texts or literary compositions forging links to the music, and the use of elements of set to draw the audience into the music by de Boesset, Le Camus, Charpentier …
One of the particularities of the ensemble is the alternation between the voices in the quire accompanied by the serpent and organ in the gallery, in the manner music was executed from the 16th to the 18th centuries : Masses, Magnificats, Te Deums… The ensemble collaborates with organists such as François Ménissier and Jean-Luc Ho in programmes featuring organ pieces and faux-bourdon plainsong with serpent. In 2013, Volny Hostiou joined the ensemble as associate director, alongside Thomas Van Essen. From it’s beginings in Normandy, the ensemble has performed thoughout France and has been invited to several prestigious music festivals : Sinfonia en Périgord, International Early Music Festival of Ribeauvillé (twice), Baroque Festival of Pontoise …
