Heather Newhouse

Canadian soprano Heather Newhouse, has won various international competitions, notably the international baroque singing competition in Froville where she won 1st priz, but also Canadian National Music Festival, Concours Lotte Lehmann CyberSing Art Song (USA), Concours international d’interprétation de la mélodie française de Toulouse. In 2010, she took part in Académie Européenne de Musique d’Aix-en-Provence. She is a graduate from Western Ontario University, Guildhall School in London and CNSMD in Lyon. From 2011 to 2013, Heather Newhouse is a member of Studio de l’Opéra national de Lyon. She performes in Parsifal (a Blumenmädchen), L’enfant et les sortilèges (La Bergère, La Princesse and Le Chauve-Souris), Der Zwerg (Zweite Zoffe) and in The Magic Flute (Pamina). Alongside her opera commitments, she often collaborates with the Concert de l’Hostel Dieu since 2008 where she is the main soprano soloist.

Recently she was the Gouvernante in The Turn of the Screw by Britten at Opéra de Lyon, Monica in The Medium by Menotti at Festival de Sédières and Madame Silberklang in Der Schauspieldirektor by Mozart with Orchestre de chambre de Genève, conducted by Leonardo García Alarcon. She sang Folk Songs by Berio with Orchestre Symphonique of Mulhouse and Quatre Jeunes Filles by Edison Denisov under the musical direction of Daniel Kawka. She performed in Requiem by Mozart with Orchestre Symphonique of Montréal, conducted by Hervé Niquet.

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Franck-Emmanuel Comte

Ever since finishing his studies at the Conservatoire Supérieur de musique in Lyon, Franck-Emmanuel Comte has held key positions and been guest at opera houses (including Nantes, Lyon, and Paris Opera Studio) and with orchestras such as the Orchestre des Pays de Savoie, the Ensemble Orchestral Contemporain, the Auckland University Orchestra, the Collegium Musicum Riga.

As artistic director of Le Concert de l’Hostel Dieu since its very beginning, he has conducted the ensemble in more than 2 000 concerts and for 20 recordings. A regular guest in European and world capitals (such as Barcelona, Rome, Brussels, Madrid, Riga, Calcutta, Chennai, Beijing and Taiyuan) and in several international festivals (including Brežice, Montserrat, Girona, Foligno, Wallonia, Ambronay, La Chaise-Dieu), Franck-Emmanuel Comte is passionate about baroque repertoire, but also for transversal or atypical artistic projects. He is artistic director of the Musicales en Auxois festival in Burgundy and of the Centre musical international J.-S. Bach de Saint-Donat.

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Le Concert de l'Hostel Dieu

Since its inception, Le Concert de l'Hostel Dieu has been a major player in the French Baroque scene. The set is distinguished by a sensitive and dynamic approach to interpretation of the vocal and instrumental repertoire of the 18th century, promoting systematically an historical and philological approach.

Under the musical direction of Franck-Emmanuel Comte, passionate artist and committed educator, the ensemble defends the originality and specificity of a regional repertoire by highlighting baroque manuscripts preserved in the libraries of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. It thus realizes various renditions and editions of unpublished scores, rich of the privileged links, which Lyon maintained with Italy.

Transposing the richness and diversity of baroque music to our time is one of the strengths of Le Concert de l’Hostel Dieu. Nourished by stimulating artistic collaborations, the ensemble brings together the different baroque aesthetics with various cultures and artists from diverse backgrounds. Its creations reinvent the concert format and aim at reaching at new audiences of different ages and also to perform in outlying areas.

As well as creating and performing, Le Concert de l’Hostel Dieu also supports young soloists at the beginning of their careers, noticed at international singing competitions or academies.

Le Concert de l'Hostel Dieu is supported by the City of Lyon, the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Region, Ministry of culture, French Institute, Bureau Export, ADAMI, SPEDIDAM and Maison de la musique contemporaine.