Olivier Schneebeli
Choral conductor Olivier Schneebeli was the longtime director of the choirs of the Centre de Musique Baroque at Versailles Palace. There, he worked on the investigation and revival of French Baroque music of the 17th and 18th centuries, especially sacred music.
Schneebeli was fascinated by both music and theater from an early age. His main conducting teachers were opera conductor Pierre Dervaux, a longtime faculty member at the École Normale de Musique de Paris, and Jean-Claude Hartemann, the music director at the Opéra-Comique in Paris from 1968 to 1972. He also pointed to a meeting with choral conductor Philippe Caillard as a decisive moment. Schneebeli founded the ensemble Contrepoint and continued to direct it into the 21st century. He also led a choral group called Ensemble Vocal. Schneebeli worked on larger productions as an assistant conductor or conductor with some of the leading figures of the 1980s wave of early music directors in France and Belgium, including William Christie, Philippe Herreweghe, and René Jacobs. He and Christie formed the original choral ensemble of Christie's pioneering group, Les Arts Florissants.
With this background, Schneebeli was invited in 1991 to join the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles by the center's co-founder, Vincent Berthier de Lioncourt. Schneebeli's duties were twofold. He was in charge of the center's pedagogical functions, which involved professional training for adult singers as well as a choir school for children; the latter spawned a children's choir called Les Pages et Les Chantres. With that group, Schneebeli made his recording debut in 1997 on the Astrée label, releasing the album Sébastien de Brossard: Oeuvres Chorales. He also directed another children's choir, the Petits Chanteurs de Saint-Louis. Schneebeli has a substantial recording catalog on various labels, including Virgin Classics, Alpha, and the Château de Versailles' own in-house label. Schneebeli stepped down as director of Les Pages et Les Chantres in 2021, and a recording he made that year with the group for the Aparte label, released in 2024, was announced as his final recording with the ensemble. Schneebeli has given master classes for choirs, including one at Oklahoma Baptist University in the U.S.
© James Manheim /TiVo
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Discography
13 album(s) • Sorted by Bestseller
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Salieri: Les Danaïdes
Les Chantres du Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles, Les Talens Lyriques, Olivier Schneebeli
Classical - Released by Bru Zane on May 19, 2015
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
De Brossard: Œuvres chorales pour Bossuet
Olivier Schneebeli, Serge Saitta, Les pages et les chantres de la Chapelle, Le Mercure Galant
Classical - Released by naïve classique on Jan 1, 1997
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Grands Motets sur le Cantique des Cantiques
Olivier Schneebeli, Les Pages & Les Chantres du Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles, Concerto Soave
Classical - Released by Château de Versailles Spectacles on Oct 22, 2021
24-Bit 88.2 kHz - Stereo -
André Campra : Tancrède
Orchestre les Temps Présents, Les Chantres du Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles, Olivier Schneebeli
Full Operas - Released by Alpha Classics on Jun 1, 2015
24-Bit 88.2 kHz - Stereo -
Pergolesi : Stabat Mater...
Le Poème Harmonique, Vincent Dumestre, Olivier Schneebeli, Les Pages & Les Chantres du Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles
Sacred Vocal Music - Released by Alpha Classics on Jan 1, 2001
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Charpentier: Vêpres pour Saint Louis
Olivier Schneebeli, Les Pages & Les Chantres du Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles
Classical - Released by Alpha Classics on Jan 1, 2003
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Lalande : De Profundis & Grands Motets
Sacred Vocal Music - Released by Warner Classics on Jan 26, 2018
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bouzignac : Motets & scènes sacrées
Ensemble Vocal Contrepoint, Olivier Schneebeli, Véronique Dubois-Archambault, Véronique Dupuy, Malcolm Walker
Classical - Released by Arion on Jan 1, 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Le Vœu de Louis XIII
Les Pages & Les Chantres du Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles, Les Symphonistes, Olivier Schneebeli
Sacred Vocal Music - Released by Alpha Classics on Jan 1, 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Lejeune: Motets pour le culte catholique et psaumes protestants (Alpha Collection)
Les Pages & Les Chantres du Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles, Olivier Schneebeli
Classical - Released by Alpha Classics on Jan 1, 2002
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Lejeune: Muze honorons, l'illustre & grand Henry
Les Pages & Les Chantres du Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles, Olivier Schneebeli
Classical - Released by Alpha Classics on Jan 1, 2002
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Campra: Messe de Requiem, in convertendo (Les Pages et les Chantres du Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles / Olivier Schneebeli)
Masses, Passions, Requiems - Released by K617 on Feb 17, 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Grands Motets (Pierre Robert (ca 1625-1699))
Sacred Vocal Music - Released by K617 on Sep 22, 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo