The great tradition in the intimacy of private salons...

and enlightenment that one retains

"There is nothing more splendid than to play for a group of cultured guests with whom one can have an exchange. That is true civilization and a way to counter the violence of the world." - G. L., pianist

•Groups & events

: The painting is by Bram van Velde.

That sentiment explains why we choose certain members' salons for soirées of classical music. Their ambiance encourages the closeness of performers and public, and lends itself to this art's nobility.

As well: Of the many excellent artists whom we know, we choose those who by their personality, their theme or the site where we produce them let guests "take home" a deepened perception of music or of an epoch.

Classical music for people who hate classical music

•Groups & events

•Recordings & review

: Interview, "France Culture" (national public radio), April 8, 2008

"Six centuries of sixth sense: surprise in music from the 16th to the 21st century - or why great composers are great"

"I play excerpts from the immense composers to show how they went beyond reliable, expected formulas. My starting point is Paul Klee's statement, " Genius is the error in the system ..." - our artist

This exuberant Franco-American is well-known for contemporary music - composers write for him and he performs internationally. Yet even people who are bored by the classics and detest the contemporary may change their minds when they've heard his clear, energetic explanations.

He performs "regular" concerts as well, with a repertory that includes jazz and Gershwin.

A pianist and an epoch

Felix Mendelssohn's sister had the same training, teachers and perhaps the same talent as he. But, as a 19th-century woman, she was unable to publish most of her compositions or to perform them in public. She remains little-known.

A pianist has written Fanny's biography and recorded her music.

She receives us in her Montparnasse home, tells Fanny's story and plays some of her works. She explains that her grandmother, who inspired this research and her choice of career, had Fanny's problems and more...

Our hostess, whom the music world respects, can of course give other concerts. But the historical and personal side of this proposal provides an extra dimension.

French music's British expert

•Recordings

: At the British Embassy

One of the few foreign artists invited to teach French music in Paris conservatories and to play on French radio, this brilliant musicologist is a specialist of Debussy.

: At the Scola Cantorum

Our audiences particularly appreciate his explaining some of Debussy, Faure, Ravel's intentions and his choices in interpreting them.

Flute - to a concert of European classical music can be added Japanese works...

that offer Westerners new horizons.

Our audiences have been greatly interested in the traditional or contemporary Japanese works this former soloist for the Amsterdam Concertgebouw sifts into her recitals.

Now a university professor in Okinawa, she can play for us when she returns to Europe, as she does regularly.

•Recordings

•Privileged entries in Okinawa

Opera in a family home, under a portrait's gaze...

This young soloist has performed with orchestras at the Salles Gaveau and Pleyel and the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, given recitals in the churches of Notre-Dame, Saint-Germain-des-Prés and Saint-Sulpice, at the Senate and the Sorbonne. She has sung at festivals and at the operas of Cairo and Hanoi.

Descendant of an Orientalist painter and granddaughter of a world-known pianist, she seems predestined for this career.