2007 AUTUMN SEASON


PHILIPPE BENDER, conductor
After being awarded three First Prizes at the CNSM de Paris (Paris Higher School of Music) and graduating from the Julliard School in New York, Philippe Bender began a highly successful career as a concert flautist. Paul Paray discovered his conducting talents and he went on to win the Besançon Competition and first prize at the prestigious Mitropoulos competition in New York. After working as assistant conductor for the New York Philharmonic under Bernstein and Boulez successively, Philippe Bender conducted prestigious European and American orchestras. In particular, he is the artistic director and permanent conductor of the Balearic Symphony Orchestra of Palma de Majorca. He has conducted the Cannes-Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur Regional Orchestra for several years and undertaken major concert tours in Japan, the United States, Germany, Austria, Brazil and China. In 2005 the Victoires de la Musique Classique classical music awards presented him with a Victoire d'honneur prize for his overall work with this particular orchestra.

LAURENT KORCIA, violin
Laurent Korcia was sponsored from a very early age by Pierre Barbizet. He studied at the CNSM de Paris under Michèle Auclair and is now one of the most famous violinists of his generation. He was awarded first prize at the CNSM de Paris and went on to win the Paganini competition in Genoa, a first prize in the Concours Jacques Thibaud, first prize in the International Zino Francescatti Competition and the Young Concert Artist Competition in London. Laurent Korcia is invited to play as soloist with the major European orchestras and is one of the few violinists to give solo recitals of programmes ranging from Bach to contemporary composers. He currently plays the 1719 “Zahn” Stradivarius that was lent to him by the LVMH-Louis Vuitton-Moët-Hennessy group.

CHŒUR RÉGIONAL PROVENCE-ALPES-CÔTE D’AZUR
Since the choir was created in 1989 Michel Piquemal has conducted some 100 experienced singers drawn from six départements. Due to the geographical size of the catchment area, the singers are divided into two separate groups, the Vocal Côte d'Azur conducted by Nicole Blanchi and the Vocal Provence by Vincent Recolin; when these two groups come together they constitute the full choir. The choir has a huge repertoire on which the Chœur Régional has built a reputation for the high quality of its performances of works such as the Stabat Maters by Cornelius, Rossini and Dvorak, the Requiems by Mozart, Brahms and Verdi, Honneger’s King David, Donizetti’s Messa di Gloria and l'Enfance du Christ by Berlioz, as well as the re-creation of the Requiem by Henri Tomasi.