(literally: "The Shepherd Boys"), also known as the , is a Belgian choir of boys and men based in

Waterloo, Belgium Waterloo (, ; wa, Waterlô) is a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in Wallonia, located in the province of Walloon Brabant, Belgium, which in 2011 had a population of 29,706 and an area of . Waterloo lies a short distance south of Brussels, ...

. It was established in 1974 and is currently

conducted Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance, such as an orchestral or choral concert. It has been defined as "the art of directing the simultaneous performance of several players or singers by the use of gesture." The primary duti ...

by Philippe Favette. Their

repertoire A repertoire () is a list or set of dramas, operas, musical compositions or roles which a company or person is prepared to perform. Musicians often have a musical repertoire. The first known use of the word ''repertoire'' was in 1847. It is a l ...

includes works of

sacred music Religious music (also sacred music) is a type of music that is performed or composed for religious use or through religious influence. It may overlap with ritual music, which is music, sacred or not, performed or composed for or as ritual. Relig ...

as well as songs of the world.

History

Concerts and events

Since

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus, Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by country, around t ...

1974, Les Pastoureaux traditionally perform a series of concerts during the

Christmas and holiday season The Christmas season or the festive season (also known in some countries as the holiday season or the holidays) is an annually recurring period recognized in many Western and other countries that is generally considered to run from late November ...

, in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

(at the

Centre for Fine Arts The Centre for Fine Arts (french: Palais des Beaux-Arts, nl, Paleis voor Schone Kunsten) is a multi-purpose cultural venue in Brussels, Belgium. It is often referred to as BOZAR (a homophone of ''Beaux-arts'') in French or PSK in Dutch. The b ...

as well as in the St. Michael and St. Gudula Cathedral) and in

Wallonia Wallonia (; french: Wallonie ), or ; nl, Wallonië ; wa, Waloneye or officially the Walloon Region (french: link=no, Région wallonne),; nl, link=no, Waals gewest; wa, link=no, Redjon walone is one of the three regions of Belgium—alo ...

. They also sing at various

music festival A music festival is a community event with performances of singing and instrument playing that is often presented with a theme such as musical genre (e.g., rock, blues, folk, jazz, classical music), nationality, locality of musicians, or h ...

s, such as the ''Festival of Wallonia'' and the ''

Festival of Flanders Festival of Flanders ( nl, Festival van Vlaanderen) is an annual music event at different locations in Flanders. It started initially as a "Summer Festival", but now its activities are spread from January to May, with a peak in late summer and earl ...

''. Their numerous concerts include collaborations with artists such as the famous

bass-baritone A bass-baritone is a high-lying bass or low-lying "classical" baritone voice type which shares certain qualities with the true baritone voice. The term arose in the late 19th century to describe the particular type of voice required to sing thr ...

José van Dam Joseph, Baron Van Damme (born 27 August 1940 in Brussels), known as José van Dam, is a Belgian bass-baritone. At the age of 17, he entered the Brussels Royal Conservatory and studied with Frederic Anspach. A year later, he graduated with diplo ...

, the Belgian

soprano A soprano () is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880&n ...

Marie-Noëlle de Callataÿ and the American

Jeanette Thompson. Les Pastoureaux are regularly guests of private events, including most notably performances at the

Royal Palace of Brussels The Royal Palace of Brussels (french: Palais royal de Bruxelles, , nl, Koninklijk Paleis van Brussel , german: Königlicher Palast von Brüssel) is the official palace of the King and Queen of the Belgians in the centre of the nation's capita ...

and the

Royal Castle of Laeken The Palace of Laeken or Castle of Laeken (french: Château de Laeken, nl, Kasteel van Laken, german: Schloss zu Laeken) is the official residence of the King of the Belgians and the Belgian Royal Family. It lies in the Brussels-Capital Regi ...

as well as their collaboration to the official show for the changeover to the

euro The euro ( symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . ...

(''The Euro Bridge'', Brussels, 31 December 2001). Besides, they are often called on for weddings ceremonies. On several occasions, soloists of Les Pastoureaux have taken part in opera productions, at the National Opera of Belgium

La Monnaie The Royal Theatre of La Monnaie (french: Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, italic=no, ; nl, Koninklijke Muntschouwburg, italic=no; both translating as the "Royal Theatre of the Mint") is an opera house in central Brussels, Belgium. The National O ...

and abroad. They represented Belgium at the

Eurovision Choir of the Year 2017 Eurovision Choir of the Year 2017 was the first Eurovision Choir competition for choral singers, which was organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and Interkultur. It was held on 22 July 2017, at the Arena Riga, in the Latvian capital ...

Riga Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the Ba ...

Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...

Directors of Music

*1974–2006: Bernard Pagnier *2006–: Philippe Favette

Summer tours

Since 1980, Les Pastoureaux travel on a two-three week international

concert tour A concert tour (or simply tour) is a series of concerts by an artist or group of artists in different cities, countries or locations. Often concert tours are named to differentiate different tours by the same artist and to associate a specific to ...

during summer. They went to

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

, Austria,

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

, Canada,

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan,

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...

, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and United States.

Discography

* ''Les Pastoureaux. Petits Chanteurs de Waterloo'' ( LP, 1979) * ''Mozart, Buxtehude, Haendel, Haydn'' ( LP, 1981) * ''Les Pastoureaux. Petits Chanteurs de Waterloo'' ( LP, 1983) * ''Noël c'est l'Amour'' ( LP, 1984) * ''Schubert, Mozart, Buxtehude'' ( LP, 1987) * ''Haydn: Nelson Mass, Schubert: Mass in G Major D 167'' (Soleil Levant) * ''Mozart: Requiem'' (Soleil Levant 1991) * ''Chants de Noël'' (Soleil Levant 1992) * ''Mozart: Coronation Mass KV 317, Solemn Vespers of the Confessor KV 339'' (Soleil Levant 1994) * ''Christmas in Waterloo'' (Syrinx Record 1994) * ''Les Pastoureaux en tournée'' (Soleil Levant 1999) * ''Les Pastoureaux. Petits Chanteurs de Waterloo'' (for the choir's 30th birthday, Soleil Levant 2005) * ''Llibre Vermell de Montserrat'' (with the early-music instrumental ensemble Millenarium,

Psallentes Psallentes ("those who sing") is a Gregorian chant ensemble founded in 2000 and based in Leuven, Belgium. Members Psallentes consists of singers Conor Biggs, Lieven Deroo, Pieter Coene, Paul Schils and Philippe Souvagie and is directed by Hendrik V ...

and the Chœur de chambre de Namur, Ricercar 2007) * ''For the Beauty of the Earth'' (2012) * ''Around the World'' (2014) * ''Fauré: Requiem'' (2017) * ''Noël!'' (2019) * ''Vivaldi: Gloria RV 589, Dixit Dominus RV 595'' (with the Millenium Orchestra, 2022)

References

Notes

External links

* – multilingual ** **
Les Pastoureaux
page at ''The Boy Choir & Soloists Directory (BCSD)'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Pastoureaux, Les Choirs of children Boys' and men's choirs Belgian music Musical groups established in 1974

Les Pastoureaux (literally: "The Shepherd Boys"), also known as the , is a Belgian choir of boys and men based in Waterloo, Belgium. It was established in 1974 and is currently conducted by Philippe Favette. Their repertoire includes works of sacred music as we ...