Conductor Camille Delaforge talks about her journey and what led her to create her own orchestra, Il Caravaggio, at the age of 29. An interview with a fervent advocate of music as a force for emancipation. 
By Chloé Bergeret 
Trained as a dancer and as a pianist, Camille Delaforge discovered Baroque music through the harpsichord, an instrument that led her to explore the codes, colours, and sound imagination of the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. In 2017, at the age of 29, she founded the ensemble Il Caravaggio, bringing together Baroque singers and instrumentalists, with a dual purpose: to reveal unjustly forgotten scores and composers, and to create a dialogue between the great repertoire and these rediscoveries, while making classical music accessible to all. A conversation with a passionate and determined conductor.
In 2017 you decided to establish your ensemble Il Caravaggio. How did this adventure come about?
Camille Delaforge: I always wanted to found an ensemble, but I first wanted to take the time to build real experience, to absorb different musical approaches. For nearly ten years, I worked with several groups, notably with Le Poème Harmonique under Vincent Dumestre. It seemed essential to me not to embark prematurely on an undertaking as demanding as leading an ensemble. I began with small initiatives, occasional projects, often without a clearly defined through-line. We presented programs in different venues, sometimes modest ones, and little by little, the project took shape, became structured, until it turned into a fully professional formation. As for the musicians, they are artists with whom I had already collaborated—some met during auditions, others during my studies. I have always been intent on building an ensemble where the diversity of backgrounds and sensibilities truly has its place.
What does creating a baroque ensemble today actually involve, beyond artistic direction?
C. D.: It is a strong artistic commitment, but also an administrative, human, and logistical adventure. You have to set up an association, write applications, seek funding, convince partners. It is a world where you constantly have to justify your choices, assert the singularity of your approach, demonstrate your legitimacy.
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