François Lazarevitch

French flutist and bagpiper François Lazarevitch has expanded his range of interests to include traditional music from the European past and its interactions with what is known as Baroque music. He is the artistic director and leader of the ensemble Les Musiciens de Saint-Julien, which he founded in 2005. Lazarevitch was born on August 25, 1975, in France. When he was 16, Lazarevitch met Antoine Geoffroy-Dechaume, an elderly keyboardist and a pioneer of historical performance in France. He went on to study at conservatories in Toulouse, Versailles, Brussels, and Paris; among his teachers were Barthold Kuijken, Daniel Brebbia, and Jean-Christophe Maillard. Lazarevitch continued his education by working with traditional musicians and dancers, taking up what would often be described as folk wind instruments, including the Irish flute and the bagpipes. The result was a style that combined Baroque music and the skills of traditional musicians. He has also worked with singers of traditional repertory, delved into Indian music, and more. Les Musiciens de Saint-Julien, providing Lazarevitch with a canvas on which to explore the ensemble ramifications of this style, became a regular guest at festivals, including the Bach Academy of Arques-la-Bataille in Normandy and the Pontoise Baroque Festival. Lazarevitch has performed as a soloist with Le Concert d'Astrée, Les Talens Lyriques, Ensemble 1700, Capilla Flamenca, and Micrologus. He has an interest in contemporary music, having performed works by Vincent Bouchot, Annette Messager, and Gérard Pesson. Lazarevitch and Les Musiciens de Saint-Julien have recorded more than a dozen albums for the Alpha label, some of them for a series focusing on folk traditions. They made their debut in 2008 with A l'ombre d'un ormeau: Brunettes et contredanses, and they have recorded both mainstream classical repertory (Bach's flute sonatas) and traditional music (The High Road to Kilkenny). In 2017, Lazarevitch issued a solo recording of Telemann's 12 Fantasias for Solo Flute on Alpha. He has continued to record exclusively for that label, issuing albums devoted to a variety of Renaissance and Baroque music, including one featuring pieces from the recorder collection Der Fluyten Lust-Hof and one covering flute-and-piano sonatas of C.P.E. Bach. In 2023, Lazarevitch and Les Musiciens de Saint-Julien released Beauté Barbare, examining folk influences in the music of Telemann. ~ James Manheim, Rovi