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Vincent Dumestre
His deep appreciation for the arts, his creative approach to Baroque aesthetics, his pioneering spirit and his passion for collective adventure naturally led him to explore the repertoires of the 17th and 18th centuries and to establish an ensemble of his own. With Le Poème Harmonique, Vincent Dumestre is now one of the most inventive and versatile figures in the Baroque revival, combining the direction of orchestras, choirs, concert seasons, competitions and festivals, while continuing to perform on his original instruments, the plucked strings.
Show moreVincent Dumestre gained his first experience in concerts and recordings alongside the pioneers who worked to rediscover, understand and revive the music of bygone eras. After studying art history at the École du Louvre and classical guitar at the École Normale de Musique de Paris, he trained in lute, Baroque guitar and theorbo with Hopkinson Smith, Eugène Ferré and Rolf Lislevand. He performed for a time with the Ricercar Consort, La Grande Écurie & La Chambre du Roy, Hespèrion XX and La Simphonie du Marais before founding Le Poème Harmonique in 1998.
Since then, through rediscoveries and reconstructions, from well-known composers to unexpected programmes, he has continually sought to create truly original productions, broadening the horizons of an entire repertoire of vocal and instrumental music and bringing it to a wider audience, establishing himself as a leading figure in the field. On the opera stage, his productions are characterised by a distinctive musical and visual aesthetic, born from the encounter between his artistic vision and that of artists from other disciplines in large-scale productions: puppeteers (Mimmo Cuticchio), stage directors (Omar Porras, Benjamin Lazar), choreographers (Julien Lubek, Cécile Roussat) and circus artists (Mathurin Bolze). In demand at major international venues dedicated to Baroque music, Vincent Dumestre also develops part of his activities with Le Poème Harmonique in Normandy, where the ensemble is based. These include programming the Saisons Baroques de la Chapelle Corneille, directing the Concours Corneille, an international Baroque singing competition, and leading L’École Harmonique, a children’s orchestra programme in schools developed in partnership with the Démos project of the Philharmonie de Paris.
Vincent Dumestre is the artistic director of the Saisons Baroques du Jura. In 2024, he was invited by the city of Kraków to take on the artistic direction of the Misteria Paschalia Festival. Vincent Dumestre is an Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters and a Knight of the French National Order of Merit.
