The French counter-tenor Philippe Jaroussky first studied the violin, winning first prize in the National-Regional Music School in Versailles. From 1996 he turned to singing, working with Nicole Fallien, and won the Victoire de la Musique as outstanding new singer of 2004.
Philippe’s first major engagement, at the 1999 Royaumont and Ambronay Festivals, was in Alessandro Scarlatti’s little-known oratorio Sedecia with Il Seminario musicale and Gérard Lesne, a performance that was subsequently recorded and released on Virgin Classics. A year later he sang in a tour of Monteverdi’s three great operas with La Grande Écurie et la Chambre du Roy, under Jean-Claude Malgoire. He sang Arbace in Vivaldi’s Catone in Utica at the Opéra Comique, Paris, also under Malgoire, and won high praise for performances of Vivaldi’s Nisi Dominus, the Pergolesi Stabat Mater and Handel’s Agrippina. In 2005 he made a triumph in the title role of Rinaldo in Paris. His first major recital last March in Paris with Le Concert d’Astrée, in a programme dedicated to the castrato Carestini, was a great success.
Philippe works regularly with Jean Tubéry and Ensemble La Fenice; they have recorded Bassani’s oratorio La morta delusa, and their recording of seventeenth-century French and Italian music, "Un concert pour Mazarin", was released by Virgin in 2004.
He also frequently collaborates with the Ensemble Matheus, and its director Jean-Christophe Spinosi – their performances on stage and on disc achieve, each time, outstanding acclaim, and Virgin Classics will be releasing in January 2007 a recital disc of Vivaldi opera arias, which furthers their sensational collaboration.
Philippe Jaroussky is frequently invited to perform in international venues for recitals; last year he was invited in Germany, Spain, Canada and Russia. As concerns opera, he made sensational debuts in 2005 at the Berlin Staatsoper as Telemaco in Ulisse with René Jacobs, the Opera de Flandres in Handel’s Rinaldo, under the direction of Andreas Spering.
Future engagements include the the role of Tolomeo in Giulio Cesare at the Opéra de Nancy, and the title role of Landi’s San Alessio under the direction of William Christie. Philippe Jaroussky will also sing in Dido and Aeneas at the Théâtre du Châtelet with Jessye Norman under the direction of Marc Minkowski, and will be performing his new disc’s program at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées with Jean-Christophe Spinosi.
Philippe Jaroussky is signed to Virgin Classics as exclusive artist: in 2005 he released a recording of virtuoso cantatas by Vivaldi which was later followed by “Beata Vergine”, again with his own ensemble, a disc of sacred music from the 17th century, hailed as a confirmation of his exceptional artistry. In January 2007, Philippe Jaroussky will be releasing, on Virgin Classics, a much-awaited programme of Vivaldi Opera arias, “Heroes”, with Jean-Christope Spinosi and l’Ensemble Matheus.
This biography was provided by the artist or their representative.
