The Lyrique-en-mer team
Board of directors
Lyrique-en-mer is an association under the 1901 law. Since 2005, the Board of Directors has contributed to the realization of all projects. It is made up of :
David Jackson / Artistic Director
From September 2024 David Jackson will take over the direction of the Lyrique-en-mer festival, which he has been involved with for many years. He has conducted the festival orchestra and choir in Dvorak's Stabat Mater, Rossini's Petite Messe Solennelle and Mozart's Missa Solemnis.
At the same time, David Jackson is Choirmaster of the Opéra de Tours, where he directs the choir's operatic and symphonic productions. He has also initiated an ambitious cultural mediation project, creating the Chorale Populaire and La Maîtrise de l'Opéra de Tours, thus widening access to music for a diverse audience. For the 2024/25 season, he will conduct the Orchestre symphonique de la Région Centre-Val de Loire and the Opera Choir in Mozart's Requiem.
A graduate of Durham University and Glasgow's Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, and a member of the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust and the Italian Cultural Institute, he has worked as assistant conductor to Lionel Sow for the Orchestre de Paris choir, as well as conductor for the Opéra de Paris children's choir, and conductor for the Maitrise de Notre-Dame de Paris.
As director of Ensemble 1904, David Jackson also recorded Poldowski reimagined (Resonus Classics), in which he orchestrated the 22 songs by composer Irène Poldowski. This recording was acclaimed by international critics: "David Jackson weaves a chamber music setting around the velvety soprano of Jazmin Black Grollemund" (Diapason).
A word from David Jackson
For over 25 years, the Lyrique-en-mer festival has been distinguished by a bold artistic line anchored in three major areas: opera, sacred music and the development of young talent. Under my new artistic direction, the festival will continue to explore these areas, while renewing its approach to better meet contemporary expectations.
Opera remains at the heart of the program, with the staging of major operatic works, enriched by co-productions to broaden the artistic offering. Sacred music, supported by the festival's amateur choir, will retain a central place, offering spectators concerts in local churches.
The young artists program, a veritable springboard for emerging international talent, will be intensified with targeted pedagogy and strengthened collaborations with national conservatories. This approach will extend beyond the festival, with year-round educational initiatives on the island, led by the new artistic delegate for cultural action and education, Jazmin Black Grollemund.
The festival is aiming for greater openness by diversifying its programming, in particular with open-air concerts to reach a wider audience. The exceptional natural setting of Belle-Île will be used to create unique artistic experiences, reinforcing Lyrique-en-mer's singular identity and its ambition to become an essential reference in the national cultural landscape.
Jazmin Black Grollemund / Artistic delegate for cultural and educational activities
After coming to Belle-Île-Mer as a "Young Artist" at the Festival in 2009, the American soprano settled in France for good in 2013. When Jazmin isn't on her adopted island, she is co-director and one of the principal artists of Les Variétés Lyriques, a company dedicated to the
creation, performance and transmission of opera. Committed to projects that democratize opera singing, she also leads singing workshops for adults and children.
She flourishes alongside composers such as Mark Kilstofte, Nathan Fryml, Philippe Schoeller, Olga Vassileva to bring contemporary works to life. In 2019, she performs the role of Alma Stinney in Frances Pollock's Stinney: An American execution at Prototype, the festival of contemporary opera and music theater in New York. She tours European venues such as the Royal Albert Hall, the Téatru Manoel in Malta and the Théâtre Montparnasse in Paris. Praised for her rich timbre and wide, colorful range, the American soprano has performed the roles of Arminda in La Finta Giardiniera, Nedda in I Pagliacci, Mutter in Hansel und Gretel, Fiordiligi in Cosi fan Tutte, and the title role in Dido and Aeneas. She performed the role of Judith in Béla Bartok's Bluebeard's Castle at the last festival.
A word from Jazmin Black Grollemund
Cultural actions, mediation and transmission.
Our mission is to strive to democratize the lyric arts, beyond the prejudices that still persist here and there.
Overcoming foreign language barriers, financial inaccessibility and geographical inaccessibility due to insularity or rurality - this is the path already taken by the festival over the past 26 years, which has seen its audience grow.
To continue on this path, other challenges await us, such as renewing our audience and turning young islanders into tomorrow's music lovers.
Among our "flagship" proposals, we'd like to set up a particularly varied program of workshops and interventions aimed at demystifying the art of singing and lyric theater. Aimed at young and old alike, these themed workshops are designed to make the various aspects of opera more accessible throughout the year.
Relying on the rich fabric of local educational and associative activities, such as the Maison de l'Enfance, the Collège Michel Lotte, the Université de Temps Libre and the EHPAD, the Lyrique Festival can and must become a link in the chain of artistic education, contributing to the island's cultural development.
By going beyond the curtains of the stage to infuse art into the territory, we offer young people the chance not only to explore the major fields of art, but also to acquire the tools, knowledge and practical application of art around professionals, works of art and venues.
Gérald de Montmarin / Choir conductor
Gerald de Montmarin trained for 8 years at the Maîtrise de Notre Dame de Paris under the direction of Nicole Corti, Lionel Sow and Sylvain Dieudonné. This solid experience of master's degree, then singer in the choir of the University of Paris–Sorbonne, awakeningu meaning harmonic and polyphonic, and allows it to confront a broader choral repertoire.
Graduated with a degree in Music and Musicology at the Sorbonne, he then specialized in choir direction with Denis Rouger, Ariel Alonso and Jean–Philippe Billmann with whom he obtains the National Higher Professional Musician Diploma in vocal ensemble direction at the high-society School des Arts du Rhin in June 2022.
He was artistic director of the Petits Chanteurs de Saint Laurent de Paris for five years. He is also choir director at the Maîtrise de Saint Christophe de Javel, as well as at the Pré–Mastery and Preparatory Choir for the Master of Notre Dame de Paris from 2015 to 2017. He is also responsible for choirs musical training withinu conservatory of Levallois–Perret by participating in numerous musical projects such as the opera “La Fée” (D.Spagnolo) in 2015 and “Tableaux” (Ensemble Amalgam) in 2016.
He took charge of the mastery of Strasbourg Cathedral from September 201July 7, 2022. plus services and concerts at the cathedral, he conducts the mastery in concerts throughout Alsace and France during summer tours. He notably recorded the CD “Chapelles radiant” in May 2019.
In September 2022, he joined the teaching team of the Academy of Music and Sacred Arts of Holy–Anne d'Auray as choirmaster of the meadow–master's degree, teacher of musical culture and music education teacher within the Groupe Scolaire Holy–Anne Saint–Louis
