Philippe Grisvard, Ensemble Diderot & Johannes Pramsohler
Biography Philippe Grisvard, Ensemble Diderot & Johannes Pramsohler
Philippe Grisvard
Described as a harpsichordist and fortepianist with “iron hands in velvet gloves” (Diapason), Philippe Grisvard has established himself as one of today’s leading experts in historical keyboards. He was born in Nancy and studied piano and oboe before becoming interested in Early Music. After harpsichord lessons with Anne-Catherine Bücher, Philippe studied at the Schola Cantorum Basilensis with Jesper B. Christensen (harpsichord and basso continuo) and with Edoardo Torbianelli (fortepiano). Subsequently, he collaborated with various ensembles such as L’Achéron, La Fenice, Scherzi Musicali, Les Ombres…
Invited by period orchestras (Le Concert d'Astrée, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin and Freiburger Barockorchester, among others) he regularly collaborates with conductors such as Emmanuelle Haïm, René Jacobs and Sir Simon Rattle and participated in opera productions at the Paris Opera, Staatsoper Berlin, Opéra de Dijon and Opéra de Lille.
Philippe is the principal harpsichordist of Ensemble Diderot, where he shows time and again his creative continuo skills that “amplify and colour the entire ensemble” (Diapason). He participated in more than 60 recordings for labels such as Ricercar, Virgin, harmonia mundi, Eloquentia, Accent, Linn records and Audax. In his solo albums for Audax Records (works by G.F. Handel C.F.C. Fasch) he presents the fruits of his musicological research.
Johannes Pramsohler
With a PhD in Historically Informed Performance from the Royal Academy of Music and an extensive discography acclaimed by international critics, Johannes Pramsohler is widely acclaimed as one of the leading forces in the Early Music scene. A stimulating and inspirational personality with a desire for inventive programming and innovative collaborations, he brings a joyful sense of adventure to his music-making. Born in South Tyrol and now living in Paris, Johannes Pramsohler alternates his roles as artistic director and leader of Ensemble Diderot with that as a guest both as soloist and as conductor at the head of numerous groups. As artistic director and first violin of Ensemble Diderot, which he founded in 2008, he brings to life unknown repertoire with a keen sense for significant rarities and creative use of historically informed performance. As concertmaster, Johannes has collaborated with Concerto Köln, The King’s Consort, Le Concert d’Astrée, the European Union Baroque Orchestra, and as a guest of the Berlin Philharmonic with its early music ensemble Concerto Melante.
Johannes Pramsohler’s communicative skills and vast musicological knowledge make him a welcome guest as a soloist and increasingly also as a conductor of baroque orchestras and modern symphony orchestras alike. Thus he has performed with the Budapest Festival Orchestra and Ivan Fischer, the Taiwan Baroque Orchestra, Helsinki Baroque Orchestra, Darmstädter Barocksolisten, the Lower Saxony State Orchestra in Hanover, and the Tyrolean Symphony Orchestra Innsbruck, performing in concert halls such as the Berlin Philharmonie, Cologne Philharmonie, Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, Palau de la Música in Barcelona, and Suntory Hall in Tokyo.
Recent conducting engagements have taken him to the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires for a staged production of Handel’s oratorio Theodora, to the Théâtre de l’Athénée and the Théâtre des Champs Elysées in Paris for the operas Dido & Aeneas by Purcell and Croesus by Reinhard Keiser, and to the Haus der Musik in Innsbruck where he conducted Beethoven symphonies.
A desire for artistic independence even in the recording studio led Johannes to found his own record label in 2013. Audax Records continues to release an astonishing variety of recordings, many of which have been awarded prizes including the Diapason d’Or, the German Record Critics’ Award (Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik), and the International Classical Music Award.
As a sought-after pedagogue, Johannes was responsible from 2011 until 2018 for the strings of the French Youth Baroque Orchestra, teaches at the Summer Academy of the Festival du Périgord Noir, and is regularly invited to give master classes at the Chinese Culture University in Taipei, the Shanghai Conservatory, the Norwegian Academy of Music, and the Instituto Superior de Arte del Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires.
Johannes Pramsohler studied at the Conservatory “C. Monteverdi” in Bozen with Georg Egger, at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London with Jack Glickman, David Takeno and Rachel Podger, at the Paris Conservatoire CRR with Patrick Bismuth, and at the Mozarteum Salzburg with Reinhard Goebel, and trained as an orchestra conductor with Nicolas Brochot in Evry. He obtained his doctoral degree (PhD) from the Royal Academy of Music with a thesis about style and performance issues of the early trio sonata in England and France. Johannes Pramsohler was a prizewinner at the 2011 Magdeburg International Telemann Competition. In 2010 he was awarded the Futura Award for young South Tyroleans abroad and in 2019 the Vincent Meyer award of the Royal Academy of Music. Since 2008 he has had the honour of owning Reinhard Goebel’s violin, a P. G. Rogeri made in 1713.
