Benjamin François – Total Baroque Magazine

Articles by Benjamin François

A trained Germanist and historian, Benjamin François worked as a producer at Radio France from 2002 to 2024. During this time, he hosted numerous programmes, including the “Concert de 20h”, as well as several in-depth interview series featuring leading figures such as Florence and Jean-Claude Malgoire, Marcel Pérès, Rinaldo Alessandrini and John Eliot Gardiner. Alongside his broadcasting career, he trained as a singer, organist and choral conductor. Since 2015, he has served as dramaturg at the Opéra Orchestre National de Montpellier. He is also President of Orgues Nouvelles, the leading international French-language journal devoted to the organ.

“Médée” on Tour: Bringing Charpentier Out of Lully’s Shadow

Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s “Médée”: In Lully’s Shadow? As he prepares to embark on a tour of France and Belgium for five concert performances of Charpentier’s only opera, Stéphane Fuget, music director of the ensemble Les Épopées, reflects on the work: it is time to stop viewing Charpentier solely through the lens of his powerful predecessor.

The Young European Baroque Orchestra: Inside the Residency in Uzès

For one week, from July 13 to 18, in Uzès in the South of France, the 16 musicians and singers of the 2026 “Jeune Orchestre Baroque Européen”, aka JOBE (the Young European Baroque Orchestra) cohort prepared and rehearsed Purcell’s “Dido and Aeneas” under the direction of Sylvain Sartre. At the end of the residency, the programme was performed as the opening event of the 55th Nuits Musicales d’Uzès. A look behind the scenes of this adventure.

Marcel Pérès and Ensemble Organum: Reinventing Cultural Initiatives (2/2)

What if the real revolution were to make music with human beings again? At a time when artificial intelligence is churning out fake sacred chants and culture is reduced to a consumable commodity, Marcel Pérès proposes an alternative path: human voices, passed-down gestures, unpredictable gatherings, and Old Roman chant restored to its ritual power. In Moissac, early music is once again becoming an experience.

Marcel Pérès and Ensemble Organum: restoring the voice of the Middle Ages (1/2)

Who in the world of early music is not yet familiar with the mark left by Marcel Pérès and his ensemble Organum? An archaeologist of sound, a pioneer of ethnomusicology applied to early music repertoires, and a thinker on sacred music, the French musicologist, singer, and conductor has established himself as one of the leading European figures in the revival of medieval music. On the eve of his 70th birthday, he recounts his life as if it were a novel.

Raphaël Pichon, Following in Bach’s Footsteps

Anniversary

Pygmalion Turns 20!

Raphaël Pichon, Following in Bach’s Footsteps

To mark Pygmalion’s 20th anniversary, Raphaël Pichon conceived a unique pilgrimage: to retrace on foot, along with his musicians, the journey that the young Johann Sebastian Bach undertook in 1705 from Arnstadt to Lübeck, in northern Germany, to further his musical education under the great Dietrich Buxtehude. After a first stage in Thuringia in 2024, which resonated widely through ARTE and France Musique, Raphaël Pichon and his ensemble are now setting off once again for Wolfenbüttel, Lüneburg, and Lübeck, in northern Germany.

by Benjamin François 14 May 2026

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Ten days of Baroque immersion at the opera

In March, Zurich aims to become the world capital of early music: shortly before Easter, from March 20 to 29, the new festival “Zürich Barock” will celebrate its first edition. Created by Matthias Schulz, director of the city’s Opera House, the event–featuring international headliners such as Philippe Jaroussky, Cecilia Bartoli, Max Emanuel Cenčić, and Raphaël Pichon–promises to be one of the highlights of the season. Matthias Schulz offers us an overview of this new format, which he envisions as distinctly international.