ÍøÆغÚÁÏ

The winner of the Metropolitan Opera's Laffont Competition in 2022, soprano Julie Roset is a rising vocal artist. Specializing in Baroque music, Roset had already released several albums by the time she reached her mid-twenties.

Roset was born in Avignon, France, in 1997. She was singing almost before she was talking, and a grandmother recalled her being enrolled in a television concert by mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli when she was three or four years old. Roset lived and breathed music even as a child. She enrolled at the Conservatoire du Grand Avignon, studying music theory and flute and singing in a choir. When she was 15, she was allowed to begin vocal studies with Valérie Marestin. In her last year, she also took classes at the Conservatoire d'Aix-en-Provence, working with Monique Zanetti and conductor Raphaël Pichon, and formed an ensemble, La Mascarade. With her interest in Baroque growing, Roset was introduced to the early music program at the Haute Ecole de Musique de Genève by a friend and graduated from that school with honors in 2019. By that time, she had already begun appearing on recordings, including the album Claudio Monteverdi: Lettera Amorosa and an album of madrigals by Jacob Arcadelt, both with Cappella Mediterranea in 2018.

Roset went on to the Julliard School in New York, studying with Edith Wiens and earning an artist diploma in 2022. She made several important operatic appearances while still in school and just after, including a Paris debut as Amour in Jean-Joseph de Mondonville's Titon et l'Aurore under veteran conductor William Christie and his ensemble Les Arts Florissants. She appeared in Rameau's Les Indes Galantes at the Opéra Royal de Versailles and sang multiple roles in Monteverdi's Orfeo under Cappella Mediterranea conductor Leonardo García Alarcón, with whom she also performed in Bach's Mass in B minor, BWV 232. In 2020, Roset made her solo recording debut with Ensemble Clematis, Nun danket alle Gott, on the Ricercar label. The year 2022 brought Roset not only her Metropolitan Opera prize but also a sophomore release on Ricercar, an album featuring Handel's Salve Regina, HWV 241, with García Alarcón conducting. Roset's schedule for the 2022-2023 season was busy and featured a tour with Philharmonia Baroque. ~ James Manheim

The members of the Swiss early music group Les Argonautes take an intensely collaborative approach to their music-making. Formed in the late 2010s, the group was quickly signed to the major Aparte label.

Les Argonautes was formed by conductor and multi-instrumentalist Jonas Descotte, a student of conductor Natalie Stutzmann at the Haute École de Musique in Geneva, Switzerland. Descotte, a native of the Canary Islands, spent six years at sea with his family on a catamaran and then took up countertenor singing, various instruments, and conducting at the Conservatoire de Toulon and then, in 2016, at the Haute École de Musique. Shortly after that, he formed Les Argonautes, taking the group's name from the Greek-Roman myth of Jason and the Argonauts, who take to the seas in a ship called the Argo in search of the golden fleece of a flying ram. The name provided more than general inspiration; Descotte conceived of the group as one where members would bring individual talents to the effort to achieve a greater goal, much as, in the group's words, "Tiphys flies the Argo, while Argos built it. Jason is the instigator of the epic, and Orpheus gives the rhythm to the rowers from his lyre." Les Argonautes is very flexible in its make-up, changing forces according to the needs of individual performance projects. Although Descotte serves as artistic director, programs are devised by various members of the group. Descotte continued to hold the position of artistic director as of the early 2020s.

At first, Les Argonautes performed mostly in the Geneva area, sometimes collaborating with the Grand Théâtre de Genève. As of early 2023, it has four programs in its repertory: "Komm," featuring the complete motets of Bach; "Dixit Dominus," including settings of that text by Handel and Lotti; "Messe en ut," built around Mozart's Mass in C minor, K. 427; and "Dido & Aeneas," featuring not only that Henry Purcell opera but a set of incidental music pieces by the same composer for a play called Circe. That program formed the basis for the first Les Argonautes album, released on Aparte in 2022. ~ James Manheim

Singer, multi-instrumentalist, and conductor Jonas Descotte is best known as the artistic director of the Swiss Baroque ensemble Les Argonautes. He has also collaborated with various other early music ensembles.

Descotte was born in Tenerife on the Canary Islands. As a child, he spent as long as six years at sea with his family on a catamaran, crossing the Atlantic Ocean and putting in at ports of call in Senegal, Cape Verde, Brazil, and around the Caribbean. He has said that he considers the process of developing a musical performance akin to that for a sea voyage. The family settled in the south of France, and Descotte became interested in music, then in Baroque music specifically. His first instrument was the cello, but it was as a countertenor that he enrolled at the Conservatoire de Toulon for studies with Luc Coadou. Seeking as wide a musical education as possible, he took classes in choral conducting, organ, Renaissance polyphony, chamber music, and even the tango. Descotte went on to the Haute École de Musique in Geneva, Switzerland, in 2016, studying with conductor and singer Nathalie Stutzmann. While there, he attended ensemble director Paul Agnew's 22nd European Baroque Academy in Ambronay, France, and began performing in early music groups in Switzerland and beyond.

It was while Descotte was still at the Haute École de Musique that he founded an ensemble of his own, Les Argonautes. Descotte took the name from a group of heroes from Greco-Roman mythology who sail their own pioneering ship, the Argo, in search of the Golden Fleece of a winged ram. The myth of the Argonauts provided more than a general inspiration for Descotte's ensemble; he also looked to the story in his vision of an ensemble that draws fundamentally on the contributions of its individual members. The group's membership varies greatly according to the repertory performed, making possible the performance of music for ensembles of various sizes, including vocalists as well as instrumentalists. At first, Les Argonautes performed mostly in the Geneva area but gradually became better known. Signed to the Aparte label, Descotte and Les Argonautes released their debut album, featuring Purcell's Dido & Aeneas and Circe, in 2022. ~ James Manheim