Created in La Rochelle in 2000 by Julien MICHAUD, the Ensemble Vocal Col Canto is a choir made up of fifteen carefully selected amateur singers. Fifteen years later and thanks to the work of its musical director, Nicolas Boisselier, since 2008, its vocal and human identity has been affirmed around an in-depth work on the great works of the choral music repertoire with the aim of offering the public services of the highest standard.

 

The ensemble has been directed since 2008 by Nicolas BOISSELIER, professional choirmaster.

 

Col Canto's repertoire consists of music from different aesthetics from the Renaissance to music today. Wishing to share and discover works unknown to the public, the group extends its repertoire to music little or not played in France.

 

The artistic season of the La Rochelle group generally consists of two programs:

• The Christmas concerts that Col Canto gives every year and which have made it possible to introduce the ensemble to a loyal and growing audience each year. On the program: pieces having for object Christmas or relating to Christmas time.

• A thematic program that can be set up for example around a composer, a country, an artistic trend. These concerts take place throughout the year.

 

Since its creation, the vocal ensemble Col Canto has performed every year in public rehearsals or concerts in many sites: Tour de la Chaîne in La Rochelle, Abbey of Trizay, cloister and church of the Dames Blanches in La Rochelle, church of Surgères, Angoulins, Aulnay and other Romanesque churches in Saintonge, Arès (33), Niort, and various other places in La Rochelle. More and more often, the ensemble gives concerts, often at festivals, in Deux Sevres   or in Vendée.

The ensemble notably sang in the first part of the choir of the French Army when it came to La Rochelle in 2002, with "Les Voix de la Neva" from Saint-Petersburg in 2003. It also recorded its program of English music under professional conditions in 2004 and created a musical Christmas story composed by Ludovic Sardain in 2007. He collaborated in 2014 with the Mastership of Salisbury Cathedral (England).

Finally, invited in the spring of 2014 by the Frederic Chopin University of Music in Warsaw (Poland), he took part in master classes with young Polish conductors and sang his Stabat Mater under the direction of the composer Milosz Bembinow.

Under the direction of Nicolas Boisselier, the ensemble has worked in partnership with other ensembles, such as the Ensemble Vocal Polymnie and the Chamber Orchestra A Piaciere. Col Canto has acquired a certain reputation for his sensitive interpretation of the repertoire of the 20th century.

His plans for the future are many. They are carried by an enthusiastic group eager to share its passion for music and its discoveries with as many people as possible.