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France's Benoît Haller is a fairly rare example of a musician who is equally widely noted as a singer and as a conductor. Since 2001 he has been the conductor of the unique Baroque ensemble La Chapelle Rhénane.

Haller was born in Strasbourg, France, in 1972. He began studying music there but then moved to the Musikhochschule Freiburg across the border in Germany, studying conducting with Hans Michael Beuerle. He graduated in 1996 with an honors diploma. Haller went on to take master classes with Frieder Bernius, Pierre Cao, and others. Parallel to this career he studied singing in the same places; his teacher in Strasbourg was Hélène Roth, and in Freiburg he worked with Hans Peter Müller, Gerd Heinz, and Beata Heuer-Christen. Haller made his operatic debut in Freiburg as Ferrando in Mozart's Così fan tutte in 2000 and then in the title role in Britten's Albert Herring two years later. As a singer he has appeared mostly in Baroque opera and choral music; his interpretations of the Passions and cantatas of Bach are especially highly regarded. He toured with the top early music choirs Collegium Vocale Gent (under Philippe Herreweghe) and the Kammerchor Stuttgart (under Bernius), and began to imagine and develop a new Baroque ensemble that, unlike others on the scene that emphasized the exposure of little-known repertory, performed direct, humanistic versions of standard Baroque works aimed at broad audiences. Accordingly, in 2001, he founded La Chapelle Rhénane (The Rhenish Chapel); he remains its conductor. The ensemble has performed German and Italian Baroque works more often than French. La Chapelle Rhénane has recorded for the Christophorus, K. 617, and Zig Zag Territoires labels; among its recordings is an acclaimed version of Buxtehude's Membra Jesu nostri that was reissued in 2019. Haller's sister, Salomé Haller, is also a singer. ~ James Manheim

The French Baroque vocal-instrumental ensemble La Chapelle Rhénane has devoted itself to the reinterpretation of famed works by Schütz, Bach, and other Baroque composers. The group's explicit goal is to reveal the emotion and the humanity in works like Bach's St. Matthew Passion, BWV 244, rather than to explore the unfamiliar repertory cultivated by many other Baroque groups.

La Chapelle Rhénane ("The Rhenish Chapel," "The Rhine Chapel") was formed in 2001 by tenor Benoît Haller, who remains its director, with the intention of removing classical music from the realm of the past, and of learned elites. The group initially dedicated itself to the music of German composer Heinrich Schütz, and then, after finding success with its recordings of Schütz's Passion settings, that of J.S. Bach. La Chapelle Rhénane has also performed music by Handel, Monteverdi, Purcell, Buxtehude, and other composers including Charpentier, although the bulk of its repertory is not French. La Chapelle Rhénane has performed at major French venues including the Cité de la Musique de Paris, the Metz Arsenal, and Théâtre des Gémeaux de Sceaux. The group has been especially popular at festivals in France and abroad, with appearances at the Tage Alter Musik in Regensburg and Thüringer Bachwochen in Germany, the Bach Festival of Lausanne and Gruyères Music Workshop in Switzerland, and Resonanzen Wien in Austria. The ensemble was invited by the Leipzig Bach Festival to perform the St. Matthew Passion at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig, the work's place of origin. In keeping with its mission of communicating directly with audiences, La Chapelle Rhénane has often held residencies in schools, lead sessions dedicated to young people, made tours in rural areas, and opened its rehearsals to the public. The group has recorded for the K.617, Christophorus, and Zig Zag Territoires. Its 2007 recording of the cantata cycle Membra Jesu nostri of Buxtehude, with the boychoir La Maîtrise de Garçons de Colmar, was reissued in 2019. ~ James Manheim