Laurence Equilbey (born 6 March 1962) is a French conductor, known for her work in the choral repertoire, and more recently as the founder and music director of the Insula Orchestra. Equilbey studied piano and flute in her early life. She undertook formal music education in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

and

Scandinavia Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Swe ...

. Her teachers included

Eric Ericson Eric Gustaf Ericson (26 October 1918 – 16 February 2013) was a Swedish choral conductor and influential choral teacher. Life and career He graduated from the Royal College of Music (''Kungl. Musikhögskolan'') in Stockholm in 1943 and w ...

, Denise Ham,

Colin Metters Colin Metters, is an English conductor, orchestral trainer and conducting pedagogue. He is Professor of Conducting at the Royal Academy of Music in London where he founded the Conductors' Course in 1983. In September 2013, he retired as Head o ...

and

Jorma Panula Jorma Juhani Panula (born 10 August 1930) is a Finnish conductor, composer, and teacher of conducting. He has mentored many Finnish conductors, such as Esa-Pekka Salonen, Mikko Franck, Sakari Oramo, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Osmo Vänskä and Klaus ...

. Equilbey founded the chamber choir

Accentus Accentus (or Accentus Ecclesiasticus; Ecclesiastical accent) is a style of church music that emphasizes spoken word. It is often contrasted with ''concentus'', an alternative style that emphasizes harmony. The terms ''accentus'' and ''concentus'' ...

in 1991, and continues as its music director. With Accentus, she has conducted commercial recordings for such labels as Naïve. In 1995, she founded the ''Jeune Chœur de Paris'', which in 2002 was incorporated as a department of the . She co-directs the programme with Geoffroy Jourdain. Since the 2009–2010 season, Equilbey has been an associate artist, with Accentus, of the

Ensemble orchestral de Paris The Orchestre de chambre de Paris (OCP) is a French chamber orchestra based in Paris. The orchestra performs throughout Paris with concerts at the Philharmonie de Paris, where it is a resident ensemble, and also at such venues as the Théâtre de ...

. Equilbey invented the "e-tuner", an electronic means of tuning quarter tones and 1/3 tones. Outside of conventional classical music, she is a collaborator in the ''Private Domain'' project, which has included work with Émilie Simon,

Murcof Murcof is the performing and recording name of Mexican electronic musician Fernando Corona. Corona was born in 1970 in Tijuana, Mexico and raised in Ensenada. He was for a time a member of the Tijuana-based Nortec Collective of electronic musicians ...

Para One Jean-Baptiste de Laubier (born 2 April 1979), known professionally as Para One, is a French electronic music producer and film director. Music career Laubier first came to prominence as one of the main producers of French rap group TTC, and ...

, and Marc Collin of

Nouvelle Vague French New Wave (french: La Nouvelle Vague) is a French art film movement that emerged in the late 1950s. The movement was characterized by its rejection of traditional filmmaking conventions in favor of experimentation and a spirit of iconocla ...

. In 2008, Equilbey was made a Chevalier of the

Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...

. In 2012 she founded the Insula Orchestra. One of their goals is to perform the neglected works by historic women composers, such as Louise Farrenc. In July 2021, Erato released their recording of Farrenc's Symphony nos. 1 and 3.

References

External links

Official Laurence Equilbey webpage

* ttp://www.veroniquejourdain.com/Laurence-EQUILBEY.html French-language biography of Equilbey from Véronique Jourdain agency
Interview with Laurence Equilbey published in the Kapralova Society Journal, 1 (Spring 2014)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Equilbey, Laurence 1962 births Living people Musicians from Paris French choral conductors Women conductors (music) Chevaliers of the Légion d'honneur Commandeurs of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres 21st-century French conductors (music) 21st-century French male musicians 21st-century French women musicians 20th-century French conductors (music) 20th-century French male musicians 20th-century French women musicians Erato Records artists