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 :
Philip Walsh / Artistic Director
Philip Walsh has been artistic director of Lyrique-en-mer since 2017, having first performed at the festival in 2001.
Born in Southampton, England, he studied piano and organ from an early age and later studied music at the University of Cambridge, where his organ teacher was the renowned Bach scholar Peter Hurford. After graduating, he spent several years in New Zealand, where he was regular guest conductor of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and conductor of the Orpheus Choir, as well as director of choirs at Wellington Cathedral . In Europe, he has worked for the Metz Opera, the Bordeaux Opera, the English Touring Opera, the Teatru Manoel in Malta, the Almeida Opera in London and the Aldeburgh Festival.
Among the orchestras he has conducted are the London Sinfonietta, the City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong, the Orchestra della Teatro La Fenice, the Orchester della Teatro Comunale de Bologna, the Orchester National de Lorraine, the Orchester Philharmonique de Malta and the RTS Symphony Orchestra of Belgrade.
He is also principal conductor of the Victoria Arts Festival in Gozo. He made his debut at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice and has also conducted at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna and the Lugo Opera Festival, as well as with the Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini, performing with pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet in concerts in Parma, Modena and Ferrara, and with jazz legend Dee Dee Bridgewater at the Verona Jazz Festival.
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
David Jackson / Piano – Conductor
David Jackson graduated from the University of Durham (England) and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow (Scotland). He is a member of Winston Churchill Memorial Trust, and Institute Cultural Italian. Recognized for being “a complete musician” (La Lettre du Musicien) with “dynamic and rigorous” direction (forumopera), he was appointed choirmaster of the Tours Opera in January 2022. Formerly choirmaster at the Maîtrise des Hauts de Seine (children's choir of the Paris Opera), he also worked as assistant choirmaster choir with Lionel Sow, for the choir of the Orchester de Paris. Since 2010 he has been assistant director of the Festival Lyrique International de Belle-Île en Mer. David Jackson is artistic director of Ensemble 1904, whose latest recording “ Poldowski reimagined » (Resonus Classics) – which presents the composer’s 22 melodies Poldowski under the orchestration of David Jackson – was praised by international critics. “David Jackson weaves around the velvety soprano of Jasmine Black Grollemund a chamber setting. » (Diapason). Also a singing director, David Jackson has worked for the Cologne Opera in Germany, for the Maîtrise de Notre-Dame de Paris and the Versailles Conservatory.
