Les Cris de Paris

Les Cris de Paris (the name means "The Street Cries of Paris") are one of France's most innovative small ensembles. The group, comprising a choir and instrumental ensemble, perform music from the Baroque to the contemporary era, with special emphasis on those two periods. They have collaborated with a wide variety of individuals and groups, both musical and extra-musical, resulting an in extraordinarily diverse repertory of performances and recordings. Les Cris de Paris was founded in 1999 by Geoffroy Jourdain, and since 2005, it has been fully professional. Each project is different and reflects the individual artistic backgrounds of the performers involved; ensemble sizes have ranged from three to 80. Presentations by Les Cris de Paris may often be described as concerts, but also include stage productions, dance events, and even poetic readings. The group's varied set of collaborators has included arrangers, composers, stage directors, actors, choral ensembles, sculptors, sound designers, and more. Les Cris de Paris have performed at a wide range of concert and festival venues in France, and have collaborated across Europe both with traditional performing groups (the Cologne Philharmonic) and contemporary ensembles (System V Berlin). They have performed at the Festival Cervatino in Guanajuato, Mexico. In 2010 the group signed with the French label Alpha, releasing Encores, a program of popular songs from France and beyond (including Madonna's Hung Up). They have continued to record for Alpha and for the related Aparte label, issuing both traditional repertory (Schumann's little-known Missa Sacra, Op. 147) and more experimental conceptions. In 2018 they issued Melancholia, a collection of avant-garde Renaissance madrigals from various countries (which they describe as "the chiaroscuro of a cabinet of musical curiosities"). Les Cris de Paris receive funding from the French Ministry of Culture, the city of Paris, the Fondation Bettencourt Schueller, and the Mécénat Musical Société Générale. ~ James Manheim