Dominique Vellard

The major areas explored by Dominique Vellard in his musical carreer are rooted in his childhood experiences as a choirboy at Notre-Dame de Versailles. The choirmaster, Pierre Béguigné, who was trained in the Niedermeyer school, nurtured in him a passionate love of Gregorian chant, Renaissance polyphony, the French composers of the seventeenth century and Bach organ music and chorales .

Soon after completing his studies at the Versailles conservatory, Dominique Vellard encountered the new approach to the various Baroque repertoires currently being led by the “harpsichordist-conductors” of the seventies . Stimulated by their challenges to received ideas about performance practice, he concentrated his work on Monteverdi for three years before deciding to devote most of his time  to  the medieval  and  Renaissance  repertoires , fields in which he felt he was entirely free to express his musical aesthetics .

Today, enriched by his experience of those earlier periods, he is returning to the vocal repertoires of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, for which he has an enduring affection, and is offering interpretations that are more lyrical and contrapuntal than those many audiences are used to .

Alongside his “medieval carrer”, Dominique Vellard has kept up his involvement in other repertoires, exploring the fruitful possibilities of encounters between the earliest works in his repertoire and traditions as varied as North Indian Classic repertories (with Ken Zuckerman), Southern Indian Carnatic singing (with Aruna Saïram), Breton Guerz (with Yann-Fañch Kemener), and Spanish traditions  (with Ana-Isabel Arnaz de Hoyos -Ensemble "Vox suavis"), while remaining active in recitals with the organist and composer Jean-Pierre Leguay, whose Secundum Matthæum (‘According to Matthew ’, 1999),  Pater noster  and  Alleluia   (2001) are dedicated to him. In 2005 he was involved in a creation by Gilbert Amy.

Dominique Vellard has made about forty recordings, whether as soloist, conductor, or at the head of the Ensemble Gilles Binchois, which he has directed since 1979 .

He has taught at the Schola Cantorum in Basel since 1982. He is also the Artistic director of the festival “Les Rencontres Internationales de Musique Médiévale du Thoronet” since it was first held in 1991, and from 2003, of "Les Meslanges de Printemps"(Dijon) .

As a composer, he writes regularly, since 1999, for the Ensemble Gilles Binchois and for friends, mostly vocal music :

A first CD of his vocal music is edited by the record company GLOSSA.

Duo M&M

Duo M&M was formed in 2003 at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Trossingen, Germany.

Since then, concentrating on the interpretation of Renaissance and Baroque music for lute, theobo and Baroque guitar, Duo M&M has become established through a great deal of concert experience.

Duo M&M performs alone or as continuo in ensembles and has played with Dominique Vellard, L’Art du Bois, UCS, Luna in many European countries (Germany, France, Switzerland, Norway, Spain, Holland, Belgium and Italy),the USA and Mexico. Appearning with L’Art du Bois, Duo M&M won the Van Wassenaer Competition (Den Haag) in 2006, when they were also distinguished with a special prize for their continuo playing. In 2007, Duo M&M performed with L’Art du Bois in the International Haendel Festival in Goettingen. During the same year, they also appeared in the re-named early music festival “Via Stellae” in Santiago de Compostella and in Barcelona at the Festival de Musica Antiga.

Duo M&M have worked successfully together with singer Dominique Vellard since meeting at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in 2005. Their many appearances together have been celebrated by overwhelming applause.