Ensemble Métamorphoses de Paris (Vocal & Instrumental Ensemble)

Founded: 1983 - Paris, France

In founding the Ensemble Métamorphoses de Paris (= EMP) in 1983, the aim of Charles Ravier and Maurice Bourbon was to form a vocal and sometimes instrumental group whose quality and variable size would enable it to approach the various genres of the polyphonic repertoire, such as songs, motets and masses, with the greatest artistic accuracy.

During the first ten years of the EMP's existence, it gave many concerts and made several recordings, first of all of music from the French and Italian Renaissance and pre-Baroque periods (Dufay, Ockeghem, Josquin des Prés, Mouton, Bertrand, Bouzignac, du Caurroy, Donato, Alessandro and Giovanni Gabrieli, Gesualdo, Monteverdi), then, in recent years, of works from the Italian Baroque (Domenico Scarlatti, Antonio Lotti). The motets are the first works by J.S. Bach recorded by the EMP.

The EMP at present (1994) comprises two independent groups on the one hand, a group of between four and eight solo singers, on the other, a vocal ensemble composed of twelve to twenty-eight singers, who are young professionals or experienced amateurs. They are directed by Maurice Bourbon.

Source: Liner notes to the CD ‘J.S. Bach: Motets’ conducted by Maurice Bourbon (Arion, 1994)
Contributed by Aryeh Oron (April 2004)

Maurice Bourbon: Short Biography | Ensemble Vocal Coeli et Terra | Ensemble Métamorphoses de Paris | Recordings of Vocal Works

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