William Christie, Founder and Musical Director

Paul Agnew, Musical Co-Director

An ensemble of singers and instrumentalists specializing in the performance of Baroque music on period instruments, Les Arts Florissants are renowned all over the world. Founded in 1979 by the Franco-American harpsichordist and conductor William Christie, the Ensemble, named for a short opera by Marc-Antoine Charpentier, has played a pioneering role in the revival of a Baroque repertoire that had long been neglected (including the rediscovery of countless treasures in the collections of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France). Today, that repertoire is widely performed and admired: not only French music from the reign of Louis XIV, but also more generally European music of the 17th and 18th centuries. Since 2007, the Ensemble is also conducted by the British tenor Paul Agnew, who was appointed Musical Co-Director of Les Arts Florissants in 2019.

Each season, Les Arts Florissants give around 100 concerts and opera performances in France—at the Philharmonie de Paris, where they are artists in residence, the Théâtre de Caen, the Opéra Comique, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, the Château de Versailles, as well as at numerous festivals—and are an active ambassador for French culture abroad, being regularly invited to New York, London, Edinburgh, Brussels, Vienna, Salzburg, Madrid, Barcelona, Moscow, and elsewhere.

Since the 1987 production of Lully's Atys at the Opéra Comique in Paris, which was triumphantly revived in May 2011, it has been on the opera stage that Les Arts Florissants have enjoyed their greatest successes. Notable productions include works by Rameau (Les Indes galantes, Hippolyte et Aricie, Les Boréades, Les Paladins, Platée), Lully and Charpentier (Médée, David et Jonathas, Les Arts florissants, Armide), Handel (Orlando, Acis and Galatea, Semele, Alcina, Serse, Hercules, L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato), Purcell (King Arthur, Dido and Aeneas, The Fairy Queen), Mozart (The Magic Flute, Die Entführung aus dem Serail), Monteverdi (his opera trilogy), but also by composers who are less frequently played, such as Landi (Il Sant'Alessio), Cesti (Il Tito), Campra (Les Fêtes vénitiennes) and Hérold (Zampa).

For their theater productions, Les Arts Florissants have called on the talents of some of the greatest stage directors, including Jean-Marie Villégier, Robert Carsen, Adrian Noble, Andrei Serban, Luc Bondy, Deborah Warner, David McVicar, Claus Guth, and Jérôme Deschamps and Macha Makeïeff, as well as on renowned choreographers such as Béatrice Massin, Ana Yepes, Jirí Kylián, Blanca Li, Trisha Brown, Robyn Orlin, José Montalvo, Françoise Denieau, Dominique Hervieu, and Mourad Merzouki.

Les Arts Florissants enjoy an equally high profile in the concert hall, as illustrated by their many acclaimed concert or semi-staged performances of operas and oratorios (Rameau's Zoroastre, Anacréon and Les Fêtes d'Hébé, Charpentier's Actéon and La Descente d'Orphée aux Enfers, Campra's Idoménée and Mozart's Idomeneo, Montéclair's Jephté, Rossi's L'Orfeo and Handel's Giulio Cesare with Cecilia Bartoli as well as his Messiah, Theodora, Susanna, Jephtha, and Belshazzar), their secular and sacred chamber-music programs (petits motets by Lully and Charpentier, madrigals by Monteverdi and Gesualdo, court airs by Lambert, hymns by Purcell, among others) and their approach to large-scale works (particularly the grands motets by Rameau, Mondonville, Campra and Charpentier, as well as Handel's Messiah and J.S. Bach's St. Matthew's Passion and St. John's Passion).

The Ensemble has produced an impressive discography: nearly 100 recordings (CD and DVD) and its own collection in collaboration with harmonia mundi, directed by William Christie and Paul Agnew.

In recent years, Les Arts Florissants have launched several education programs for young musicians. The most emblematic is the Academy of Le Jardin des Voix: created in 2002, it is held every two years and has already brought a substantial number of new singers into the limelight. The Arts Flo Juniors program, launched in 2007, enables conservatory students to join the orchestra and chorus for the length of a production, from the first day of rehearsals up to the final performance. And then there is the partnership between William Christie, Les Arts Florissants, and New York's Juilliard School of Music, which since 2007 has allowed a fruitful artistic exchange between the U.S. and France. Launched in 2021, a yearly program of masterclasses in Thiré (Vendée, Pays de la Loire) comes to complete this panel of programs with short working sessions led by William Christie and Paul Agnew, to help young professionals improve their skills.

Les Arts Florissants also organize numerous events aimed at building new audiences. Linked to each year's concert program, they are designed for both amateur musicians and non-musicians, adults as much as children.

In 2012, William Christie and Les Arts Florissants created the festival Dans les Jardins de William Christie, in partnership with the Conseil départemental de la Vendée. An annual event, the festival brings together artists from Les Arts Florissants, pupils from the Juilliard School, and finalists from Le Jardin des Voix for concerts and promenades musicales in the gardens created by William Christie at Thiré, in the Vendée. In addition to the festival, Les Arts Florissants are working with the endowment fund Les Jardins de Musique de William Christie towards the creation of a permanent cultural venue in Thiré. In 2017, following a decision by the French Ministry of Culture, Les Arts Florissants has been awarded the national label « Centre culturel de Rencontre », which distinguishes projects associating creation, patrimony, and transmission. In 2018, Les Arts Florissants becomes the Foundation Les Arts Florissants -- William Christie.

Les Arts Florissants receives financial support from the State—the Regional Direction of Cultural Affairs (DRAC), the Département de la Vendée, and the Région Pays de la Loire. The Selz Foundation is their Principal Sponsor.  Aline Foriel-Destezet and the American Friends of Les Arts Florissants are Major Sponsors. Les Arts Florissants has been an ensemble in residence at the Philharmonie de Paris and is recognized as a "Heritage Site for Culture."

"Performances so special that I feel a changed man from listening" [Gramophone]; "A stunner by any standard" [The Strad]; and "Mesmerizing" [The New Yorker]—these represent common reactions upon encountering violinist Théotime Langlois de Swarte who is rapidly emerging as a much sought-after violin soloist (on both baroque and modern instruments), chamber musician, recitalist, and conductor.

Recognition has come in the form of major awards, including the 2022 "Diapason D'or of the year" for his recording of Vivaldi, Locatelli, and Leclair concertos (harmonia mundi), and the 2022 "Ambassador of the Year" award from the European Early Music Network (REMA), along with multiple additional recording awards and a February 2022 cover story in The Strad magazine.

In solo appearances on both baroque and modern violin, de Swarte regularly offers concertos by all of the baroque masters, along with those of Haydn and Mozart.  He has appeared with Les Arts Florissants, Le Consort, Orchestre de l'Opera Royal, Holland Baroque, The Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, Les Ombres, and Orchestre National de Lorraine.  His engagements have brought him to prestigious venues such as Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, the Philharmonie de Paris, Vienna's Musikverein, Hamburg's Elbphilharmonie, Berlin's Philharmonie, Los Angeles' Walt Disney Hall, and the Shanghai National Art Center.

Théotime Langlois de Swarte studied at the Paris Conservatory under Michael Hentz and became a regular member of Les Arts Florissants at William Christie's invitation in 2014, while still a student.  He has since appeared as soloist with the ensemble and will perform Vivaldi's Four Seasons with them on North American tours in spring and fall 2025.  He has also appeared in recital with William Christie, including a 2021 recording of sonatas by Leclair and Senaille (Generations on harmonia mundi).  

As co-founder—with harpsichordist Justin Taylor—of the baroque ensemble Le Consort, de Swarte can be heard on numerous highly acclaimed recordings, including Specchio Veneziano, Opus 1, and Philarmonica, all on Alpha Classics.  Le Consort has performed widely throughout Europe, and their debut North American tours in 23/24 included Montreal, Boston, Washington, Kansas City, Berkeley, Chicago, St. Paul, Louisville, New Orleans, Vancouver, and Ottawa.

Besides William Christie, frequent recital collaborators include harpsichordist Justin Taylor and lute player Thomas Dunford, with whom he recorded a much-praised album titled The Mad Lover.  Another notable recording, A Concert at the Time of Proust, was made on the newly restored Davidoff Stradivarius at the Philharmonie de Paris Museum. His most recent recording—Antonio Vivaldi Concerti per una vita (harmonia mundi)—has garnered wide acclaim, and early 2025 marks the release of Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons" to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the work's publication.

Alongside his instrumental work, de Swarte is emerging as a conductor. In 2023, he led performances at l'Opera Comique of Lully's Le Bourgeois gentilhomme (with Les Musiciens du Louvre at Marc Minkowski's invitation) and Gretry's Zemire et Azor (at Louis Langrée's invitation).  He returns to l'Opera Comique to lead Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride in November 2025.

Théotime Langlois de Swarte is a laureate of the Banque Populaire Foundation. He plays a violin of Carlo Bergonzi (1733) on generous loan from an anonymous patron.