about
Born thanks to some thrilled and friendly musical encounters, the Ensemble de l'Encyclopédie is an ensemble that performs the repertoire from 1750 to 1830 on period instruments thanks to historically informed musicological research.
Founded by Florent Albrecht in 2020, L'Ensemble de L'Encyclopédie is established on the shores of Lake Geneva. It is a scalable ensemble composed of the best musicians specialized in such a repertoire and music; most of them have already performed within the greatest baroque, classical and romantic European ensembles.
Geneva, intellectual and cosmopolitan city, city of the Philosophers of the Enlightenment, has four copies of the original edition of the Encyclopedia of Diderot and d'Alembert. It is to this demanding and humanist tradition that the musicians of the Ensemble de L'Encyclopédie intend to pay tribute to with this choice of name.
Thanks to historically informed musicological researches, the ensemble intends to offer enthusiastic and as faithful as possible interpretations of the repertoire of this period, whatever the genre considered: sacred, chamber, lyrical, symphonic and concert music. But he also wants it to discover these unknown masterpieces that are so numerous and so little played.
In less than two years of existence, the Ensemble de L'Encyclopédie has reached very fast pace of development in Geneva, being invited at Victoria Hall, Studio Ernest Ansermet (broadcast by Swiss Radio), at the Concerts d'été de Saint-Germain, at Musiques en été festival, and soon in May 2023 at Agapé festival.
florent albrecht - artistic director
A passionate keyboardist, Florent Albrecht studied the modern piano with Laurent Cabasso, pianoforte with Pierre Goy and the harpsichord in the class of Kenneth Weiss. He lately attended Nicolas Brochot's conducting class.
Initially pursuing a career in the luxury industry, Florent encouraged and supported by his musician friends, joined the Geneva Conservatory (HEM) in pianoforte, from which he graduated #1 in 2018. After significant encounters with Paul Badura-Skoda, Charles Rosen, and Malcolm Bilson who mark out his artistic career, in 2018 he was awarded the laureate from the Royaumont Foundation.
Florent Albrecht surrounds himself with an eclectic mix of demanding musicians for his past and future projects : Giuliano Carmignola, Jodie Devos, Amandine Beyer, Sophie Karthaüser, Anna Reinhold, or conductors such as Chiara Banchini, Alexis Kossenko and Vaklav Luks in a concert where Florent was invited by the Orchestre National de France.
As a soloist or chamber musician, of which he is particularly fond of, he already performed at the Barbican Center London, Auditorium Nacional Madrid, Munich Philharmony, Juilliard School New York, Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord, Auditorium de Radio France, Philharmonie and National Opera in Paris, at Chopin Festival in Nohant.