Academia
Academy
30th July to 6th August 2026
We are delighted to present the sixth edition our ancient music academy. This academy will allow young musicians and singers to deepen and develop their knowledge and practice of historical interpretation. They will be guided by artists renowned for their individual approach, whether in terms of their teaching or their performance style. This approach, the very essence of Les Epopées, is at the heart of the Academy's teaching.
Application
Admission, subject to acceptance by the professors:
- Singers : on CV and recording (you can contact us if you don't have recording)
- Violin, cello and viola da gamba : on CV
End of applications:
June 30, 2026
The teaching team
Singing and interpretation class
Claire Lefilliâtre and Stéphane Fuget
Baroque violin class
Odile Édouard
Cello class
Valentin Bajou
Vocal coach class
Stéphane Fuget
Stéphane Fuget
Stéphane Fuget is a harpsichordist, organist, pianist and conductor. He started his career as a vocal coach alongside C. Rousset, J-C Spinosi and M. Minkowski on major international stages: Staatsoper and Theater an der Wien (Vienna), DNO (Amsterdam), Liceu (Barcelona), La Monnaie (Brusells), Opéra de Paris, Châtelet and Théâtre des Champs Elysées (Paris), Strasbourg, Toulouse and Bordeaux operas. He teaches a vocal voaching class and a baroque opera class at the CRR in Paris, the only of their kind in France. At the conservatoire he has put on many operas, by Monteverdi, Handel, Cavalli, Cesti, Lully, Rossi, Peri, Marais and Grétry. In 2018 he created Les Epopées, a lyrique company, advocating a decidedly new manner of interpretation.
Claire Lefilliâtre
Claire Lefilliâtre is recognised as one of the most gifted specialist interpretators of French and Italian XVIIth century music. She has collaborated with several ensembles including Le Poème Harmonique, The Holland Baroque Society, La Tempête and Les Epopées, with whom she has performed internationally (Opéra-Comique, Opéra d’Avignon, Aix-en-Provence, but also Brusells, Beijing, Delhi). Equally interested by one-off projects, Claire has collaborated with Oxalys Ensemble (Mahler, Canteloube, Berio, Jongen, etc.), Benjamin Lazare, Emily Loizeau, the circus troupe CIRCA and Aurélien Baury. A passionate teacher, she has given many master classes in France and abroad.
Odile Édouard
A violin professor at the Lyon CNSM since 1996, Odile Edouard is an important figure in the second generation of musicians dedicated to period instrument interpretation. She most often performs chamber music, as well as solo recitals. Following her inquisitive nature, she and Alain Gervreau founded the ensemble Les Sonadori, based on their research into the birth of the violin family. In addition, she has played for over 20 years with Les Witches ensemble, with whom she explores themes of theatricality and improvisation. She frequently performs with Freddy Eichelberger, as well as Philippe Despont and Alain Gervreau in their ensemble Les Conversations. She has appeared at most significant European festivals. She has featured in over 30 recordings.
Valentin Bajou
Valentin plays bass violins—particularly the cello—with an approach centered on early musical practices and their informed restitution. His patient and rigorous approach, grounded in period sources and customs, embodies this desire to reestablish the foundations of the historical musician's craft. It is not the effect that interests him, but the research that precedes it.
Valentin enthusiastically shares this approach in his classes, where historical rigor is always combined with a lively, open, and exchange-based practice.
He studied on both sides of the Atlantic before joining the teaching staff of the Early Music Department at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels. He is currently pursuing a doctorate at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, focusing on continuo performance practices on bass violins in Italy in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Entry requirements
Vocal coaching class - Stéphane Fuget
Open to harpsichordists, pianists and theorbists wishing to develop their skills in working with singers on baroque repertoire.
Singing and interpretation class - Claire Lefilliâtre et Stéphane Fuget
Open to all singers, students, pre-professionals and professionals wishing to develop their skills in baroque interpretation. 17th and 18th century vocal repertoire.
Baroque violin class - Odile Édouard
Open to baroque or modern violinists, amateurs, professionals, or students (minimum post-graduate level). In harmony with the aesthetics of the organs we will be working with, two principal repertoires will be explored: Italian music from the late 16th and early 17th centuries: diminished songs, sonatas, canzonas, motets and madrigals... French music from the first half of the 18th century: sonatas and cantatas or religious pieces with voice.
Cello class - Valentin Bajou
This workshop is aimed at cellists who wish to work on continuo playing on the cello and explore how this practice can change not only their conception of accompaniment, but also their approach to solo repertoire and the specific technical challenges of the cello.
Thanks to the method developed and taught at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels by Valentin Bajou, they will be able to grasp, in one week, how a systematic approach can change their relationship with the historical cello.
This approach, based on 18th-century Neapolitan pedagogy, makes this technique accessible to everyone, regardless of their personal theoretical background.
Repertoire covered: Italian repertoire from the late 17th to the late 18th century. Students will have the freedom to emphasize a solo or accompaniment approach according to their individual wishes.
Organisation
The days will be organised around individual and group lessons and chamber music classes. The week will close with student concerts.
For instrumentalists
Daily group lesson to work on posture, historical techniques, improvisation, division....
Individual lessons
Chamber music class
For singers
Individual lessons alternating between Claire Lefilliâtre and Stéphane Fuget
Chamber music class
The Place
Information to come
Tarif
Tuition fees
Information to come
Accomodation and meal cost
Information to come
The festival concerts are open free of charge to academy students. Bus trips to concert venues are paid for by the Academy.