Jupiter Ensemble

Founded in 2018 by Thomas Dunford, Ensemble Jupiter was born from the spirit of friendship between young, acclaimed musicians of the new generation, including the mezzo-soprano Lea Desandre, the harpsichordist Jean Rondeau, the bassist and composer Douglas Balliett, the cellist Bruno Philippe, the guitarist Thibaut Garcia, and the bassoonist Peter Whelan. Their common goal is to achieve great interpretive freedom through intensive listening, improvisation, and energetic playing. The ensemble’s repertoire ranges from Handel, Vivaldi, and Couperin to Joaquín Rodrigo and original compositions by Thomas Dunford and Douglas Balliett. Jupiter regularly performs in major concert halls in Europe and the United States, such as the Paris and Berlin Philharmonie, Carnegie Hall in New York, and London’s Wigmore Hall, as well as at the festivals in Aix-en-Provence and Salzburg. In the 2023-24 season, it presented the production Chasing Rainbows, a tribute to the Broadway icon Julie Andrews directed by Sophie Daneman, at the Opéra de Rouen and the Opéra Comique in Paris. In 2019, Jupiter released its first CD, a Vivaldi album, which won the Prix Caecilia and the International Classical Music Award, among other distinctions. Together with Lea Desandre, Amazone (2021), which features French and Italian Baroque music, and the Handel project Eternal Heaven (2022) followed. Jupiter is supported by the Fondation Orange, the Centre National de la Musique (CNM), Adami, and Spedidam. It serves as ensemble-in-residence of the Fondation Singer-Polignac. 

May 2024