Maîtrise de Radio France (; known as Maîtrise de Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française prior to 1975) is the

choir school This article contains a list of choir schools sorted alphabetically by country. Australia *St Andrew's Cathedral School, Sydney *St Mary's Cathedral College, Sydney, St Mary's Cathedral College, Sydney *Xavier High School, Albury, NSW *St John's ...

Radio France Radio France () is the French national public radio broadcaster. Stations Radio France offers seven national networks: *France Inter — Radio France's "generalist media, generalist" station, featuring entertaining and informative talk mixed wi ...

. The school and its choir were founded in 1946 by the composer Henry Barraud and the pedagogue Maurice David. Its first Director was

Marcel Couraud Marcel Just Théodore Marie Couraud (20 October 1912 in Limoges – 14 September 1986 in Loches) was a French orchestral and choral conductor and organist. Biography Couraud studied organ with André Marchal in Paris where he attended the Ecol ...

. As a performing ensemble the Maîtrise choir has appeared on numerous recordings and in live concert performances, with a particular emphasis on choral works by French composers. It is one of the four permanent ensembles of Radio France along with the Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France,

Orchestre national de France The Orchestre National de France (; ; abbr. ONF) is a French symphony orchestra based in Paris, founded in 1934. Placed under the administration of the French national radio (named Radio France since 1975), the ONF performs mainly in the Grand ...

and Chœur de Radio France. The school's administration is based at the

Maison de la Radio Maison (French for "house") may refer to: People * Edna Maison (1892–1946), American silent-film actress * Jérémy Maison (born 1993), French cyclist * Leonard Maison, New York state senator 1834–1837 * Nicolas Joseph Maison (1771–1840), M ...

in the

16th arrondissement of Paris The 16th arrondissement of Paris (; ) is the westernmost of the 20 arrondissements of Paris, the capital city of France. Located on the city's Right Bank, it is adjacent to the 17th and 8th arrondissements to the northeast, as well as to the ...

, while its academic base is the nearby Lycée La Fontaine. A second site was opened in

Bondy Bondy () is a commune in the northeastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris, in the Seine-Saint-Denis department. Name The name Bondy was recorded for the first time around AD 600 as ''Bonitiacum'', meaning " ...

in 2007 to serve children and young people resident in the north-eastern suburbs of Paris. Sofi Jeannin has served as the director of both the school and its choir since 2008.

France Culture France Culture () is a French public radio channel and part of Radio France Radio France () is the French national public radio broadcaster. Stations Radio France offers seven national networks: *France Inter — Radio France's "generalist ...

(30 April 2017)
"Les succès de la Maîtrise de Radio France"
Retrieved 14 October 2017 .

Education system

The Maîtrise has approximately 180 students ranging in age from 7 to 17 who are accepted by a national audition process. Once accepted their education is free. The mornings are devoted to academic studies, with the school providing education from '' école élémentaire'' through the ''

baccalauréat The ''baccalauréat'' (; ), often known in France colloquially as the ''bac'', is a French national academic qualification that students can obtain at the completion of their secondary education (at the end of the ''lycée'') by meeting certain ...

''. The afternoons are devoted to music studies with training in both solo and choral singing, piano,

harmony In music, harmony is the concept of combining different sounds in order to create new, distinct musical ideas. Theories of harmony seek to describe or explain the effects created by distinct pitches or tones coinciding with one another; harm ...

Dalcroze Eurhythmics Dalcroze eurhythmics, also known as the Dalcroze method or simply eurhythmics, is a developmental approach to music education. Eurhythmics was developed in the early 20th century by Swiss musician and educator Émile Jaques-Dalcroze and has inf ...

, and

Alexander Technique The Alexander technique, named after its developer Frederick Matthias Alexander (1869–1955), is an alternative therapy based on the idea that poor posture causes a range of health problems. The American National Center for Complementary a ...

as well as rehearsals.Wasselin, Christian (21 September 2016)
"Voix, mouvement, espace: la Maîtrise!"
Radio France. Retrieved 15 October 2017 . The branch in Bondy, a designated

sensitive urban zone A sensitive urban zone (, ZUS) is an urban area in France defined by the authorities to be a high-priority target for city policy, taking into consideration local circumstances related to the problems of its residents. On the 26th of December 1996 ...

of Paris with a large immigrant population, is based at the École Olympe-de-Gouges and runs a preparatory course for the main school in central Paris. The Bondy branch was established in 2007 and by 2011 had sixty students from nineteen different nationalities. The Auditorium Angèle et Roger Tribouilloy, purpose-built by the commune of Bondy in 2013, provides practice rooms and a 220-seat auditorium which the Maîtrise shares with the Commune of Bondy Conservatory and two other local '' collèges''.

Choir

In its early days, the Maîtrise was primarily a girls' choir. With the growth in the number of students over the years, and the increasing enrollment of boys who now make up a third of its students, the Maîtrise is now divided into several choral groups. These include two choirs for older girls and one for younger girls, a mixed chamber choir, and a choir for young boys whose voices have not yet changed. The choir's first public concert took place on 6 June 1946 at the

Théâtre des Champs-Élysées The Théâtre des Champs-Élysées () is an entertainment venue standing at 15 avenue Montaigne in Paris. It is situated near Avenue des Champs-Élysées, from which it takes its name. Its eponymous main hall may seat up to 1,905 people, while th ...

where they performed

Michael Haydn Johann Michael Haydn (; 14 September 1737 – 10 August 1806) was an Austrian composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period, the younger brother of Joseph Haydn. Life Michael Haydn was born in 1737 in the Austrian village of Rohra ...

's ''Missa Sancti Leopoldi'', Janequin's ''Chant des oiseaux'', and extracts from Pierné's ''Les Enfants à Bethléem''.Barraud, Henry (edited and annotated by Myriam Chimènes and Karine Le Bail) (2010)
''Un compositeur aux commandes de la radio''
p. 286. Fayard. The Maîtrise now gives approximately forty public performances each year, either ''

a capella Music performed a cappella ( , , ; ), less commonly spelled acapella in English, is music performed by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Rena ...

'' or with the Radio France orchestras. They have also performed with other orchestras such as the

Los Angeles Philharmonic The Los Angeles Philharmonic (LA Phil) is an American orchestra based in Los Angeles, California. The orchestra holds a regular concert season from October until June at the Walt Disney Concert Hall and a summer season at the Hollywood Bowl from ...

( Mahler's Symphony No. 3, 2016) and the

London Symphony Orchestra The London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) is a British symphony orchestra based in London. Founded in 1904, the LSO is the oldest of London's orchestras, symphony orchestras. The LSO was created by a group of players who left Henry Wood's Queen's ...

(''

El Niño EL, El or el may refer to: Arts and entertainment Fictional entities * El, a character from the manga series ''Shugo Chara!'' by Peach-Pit * Eleven (''Stranger Things'') (El), a fictional character in the TV series ''Stranger Things'' * El, fami ...

'', 2016).

Recordings and awards

The choir appears on several recordings of

Olivier Messiaen Olivier Eugène Prosper Charles Messiaen (, ; ; 10 December 1908 – 27 April 1992) was a French composer, organist, and ornithology, ornithologist. One of the major composers of the 20th-century classical music, 20th century, he was also an ou ...

's '' Trois petites liturgies de la présence divine'', including the 1994 recording for

Erato In Greek mythology, Erato (; ) is one of the Greek Muses, the inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. The name would mean "desired" or "lovely", if derived from the same root as Eros, as Apollonius of Rhodes playfully sugge ...

conducted by

Kent Nagano Kent George Nagano (born November 22, 1951) is an American conductor and opera administrator. Since 2015, he has been ''Generalmusikdirektor'' (GMD) of the Hamburg State Opera (until 2025). Early life and education Nagano was born in Berkeley, ...

with

Yvonne Loriod Yvonne Louise Georgette Loriod-Messiaen (; 20 January 1924 – 17 May 2010) was a French pianist, teacher, and composer, and the second wife of composer Olivier Messiaen. Her sister was the Ondes Martenot player Jeanne Loriod. Biography Loriod ...

as the pianist and

Jeanne Loriod Jeanne Blanche Armande Loriod (13 July 1928 – 3 August 2001) was a French musician, regarded as the world's leading exponent of the ondes Martenot, an early electronic instrument. Born in Houilles, Yvelines, she was the younger sister of Yvonne ...

playing the

ondes Martenot The ondes Martenot ( ; , ) or ondes musicales () is an early electronic musical instrument. It is played with a lateral-vibrato Keyboard instrument, keyboard or by moving a ring tied to a wire, creating "wavering" sounds similar to a theremin. D ...

. Messiaen had a special affection for the Maîtrise girls' choir:

I have a great admiration for the delightful voices of the Maîtrise de Radio France. These young girls have a pure sound and an absolutely unmatched musicality ..Whenever my ''Trois petites liturgies de la présence divine'' are performed in Paris or the French provinces, I have appealed to the Maîtrise for the choral parts which this work entails. And every time, it was an enchantment of youth and joy.

The Maîtrise choir has performed on numerous recordings of operas which call for a children's chorus such as ''

Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher Jeanne may refer to: Places * Jeanne (crater), on Venus People * Jeanne (given name) * Joan of Arc (Jeanne d'Arc, c.1412–1431), French folk heroine and saint * Jeanne Devos (religious sister) * Jeanne Devos (photographer) * Joan of Flander ...

'', ''

L'Enfant et les sortilèges ''L'enfant et les sortilèges: Fantaisie lyrique en deux parties'' (''The Child and the Spells: A Lyric Fantasy in Two Parts'') is an opera in one act, with music by Maurice Ravel to a libretto by Colette. It is Ravel's second opera, his first b ...

'', ''

La bohème ''La bohème'' ( , ) is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions '':wikt:quadro, quadri'', ''wikt:tableau, tableaux'' or "images", rather than ''atti'' (acts). composed by Giacomo Puccini between 1893 and 1895 to an Italian libretto b ...

'', and ''

Carmen ''Carmen'' () is an opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first performed by the O ...

''. The soundtrack of the 1984 filmed version of ''Carmen'' with Julia Migenes-Johnson,

Plácido Domingo José Plácido Domingo Embil (born 21 January 1941) is a Spanish opera singer, conductor, and arts administrator. He has recorded over a hundred complete operas and is well known for his versatility, regularly performing in Italian, French, ...

, the Choeur de Radio France, Maîtrise de Radio France, and the

Orchestre National de France The Orchestre National de France (; ; abbr. ONF) is a French symphony orchestra based in Paris, founded in 1934. Placed under the administration of the French national radio (named Radio France since 1975), the ONF performs mainly in the Grand ...

conducted by

Lorin Maazel Lorin Varencove Maazel (; March 6, 1930 – July 13, 2014) was an American conductor, violinist and composer. He began conducting at the age of eight and by 1953 had decided to pursue a career in music. He had established a reputation in t ...

won the 27th annual

Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording The Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording has been awarded since 1961. The award was originally titled Best Classical Opera Production. The current title has been used since 1962. Prior to 1961 the awards for operatic and choral performances wer ...

. In 1994 the Maîtrise de Radio France performed the world premiere of Nguyen Thien Dao's opera-oratorio ''Les Enfants d'Izieu'' (''The Children of

Izieu Izieu () is a commune in the Ain department in eastern France. It lies on the river Rhône, between the cities of Lyon and Chambéry. The Commune is famous for the 1944 abduction by the Nazis of the children and staff from the Izieu orphan ...

'') at the

Festival d'Avignon The ''Festival d'Avignon'', or Avignon Festival (), is an annual arts festival held in the France, French city of Avignon every summer in July in the courtyard of the Palais des Papes as well as in other locations of the city. Founded in 1947 by ...

. The subsequent recording received the 1995 ''Orphée d'or'' from the Académie du Disque Lyrique. It was the first time the award had been given to a children's choir.

Past students

* Norah Amsellem, opera singer''Télé Satellite et Numérique'' (20 June 2006)
"La maîtrise de Radio France"
Retrieved 15 October 2017 . * Nora Gubisch, opera singer *Lucie Lebrun and Elisa Paris of the vocal trio L.E.J *

Danielle Licari Danielle Licari (born Danielle Cuvillier on 30 November 1936, in Boulogne-sur-Mer) is a French singer who was active in the 1960s and 1970s. She's now remembered primarily as the vocalist in Concerto pour une Voix. Career In 1964, she dubbe ...

, multi-genre chorister and soloist. *

Sandrine Piau Sandrine Piau (born 5 June 1965) is a French soprano. She is particularly renowned in Baroque music although also excels in Romantic and modernist art songs. She has the versatility to perform works from Vivaldi, Handel, Mozart to Schumann, Deb ...

, opera singer * Isabelle Poulenard, opera singerBeauvert, Thierry (30 March 2014)
"Diable Beauvert: Isabelle Poulenard"

France Musique France Musique () is a French national public radio channel owned and operated by Radio France. It is devoted to the broadcasting of music, both live and recorded, with particular emphasis on classical music and jazz. History The channel was lau ...

. Retrieved 15 October 2017 .

References

External links

*
Scenes from the 2017 documentary film ''Une famille de chœur: La Maîtrise de Radio France''

Fonds d'archives de la Maîtrise
(annotated description of the archives of Maîtrise de Radio France 1945–2001) {{DEFAULTSORT:Maitrise de Radio France Radio France Choirs of children Youth choirs Secondary schools in France Educational institutions established in 1946 1946 establishments in France Radio and television choirs