Born in Paris on October 17, 1984, Raphaël Pichon studied violin and piano before turning to opera singing. Gifted with a countertenor voice, he then specialized in orchestral conducting, forming the Pygmalion ensemble in 2005, with whom he has made numerous recordings that have won international critical acclaim. Specializing in the Baroque repertoire on period instruments, particularly the masses of J. S. Bach, his performance of Missae Breves BWV 234 & 235 for the Alpha label was awarded a Diapason d'or and a Gramophone prize. The following collections, Missa Breves BWV 233 & 236 (2010) and Missa 1733 (first version of the Mass in B minor), published in 2012, received an equally warm welcome. With his ensemble, regularly featuring Sabine Devieilhe, Alice Foccroulle, Eugénie Warnier, Sébastien Daucé, Lucile Richardot, Damien Guillon and Eva Zaïcik, the left-handed conductor leads Rameau's operas Hyppolite et Aricie at the Opéra royal de Versailles, Dardanus (a performance published on disc in 2013) and Castor & Pollux, which won the Gramophone of the Year award in 2015. The orchestra in residence at Opéra national de Bordeaux collaborates with international opera houses and ensembles. Following the rediscovery of Luigi Rossi's forgotten opera L'Orfeo (1647), presented in 2017 and released on DVD, Raphaël Pichon conducts Claudio Monteverdi's Vespers of the Virgin in Bordeaux's Basilica Saint-Seurin and Mozart's Requiem at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, two works he will record successively in 2023 and 2024. Ensemble Pygmalion and its creator accompany Sabine Devieilhe's recitals The Weber Sisters (2015) and Stéphane Degout's Enfers (2018), alongside thematic albums Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Wagner: Rheinmädchen (2016), Stravaganza d'Amore! (Diapason d'or, 2017) and Liberta (Mozart and the Opera) (2019). The year 2020 is crowned by the release of Bach: Motets, another award-winning recording.
