BAROK MUSIC BY GAÉTAN JARRY
Vibrate, share, transmit: these are the words that lie at the heart of the Marguerite Louise project and continually fuel its passionate commitment to bringing emotion to life.
Founded by organist Gaétan Jarry, the Marguerite Louise ensemble has established itself as one of the leading forces on today’s new Baroque scene.
The ensemble takes its name and inspiration from Marguerite Louise Couperin, cousin and muse of the Sun King’s organist. A celebrated singer in her lifetime, she captivated her contemporaries with the grace and purity of her voice, and still embodies an ideal of refinement and expressivity.
In close collaboration with the Opéra Royal de Versailles, Marguerite Louise performs regularly on major stages and at festivals across Europe, including the Festival Radio France Occitanie, Rencontres Musicales de Vézelay, Opéra d’Avignon, Théâtre de Caen, Cité de la Musique in Paris, Théâtre Impérial de Compiègne, Palazzo Farnese in Rome, Grands Concerts de Lyon, the Potsdam Musikfestspiele, and the London Music Baroque Festival.
Its discography, comprising around fifteen recordings, has helped shape an immediately recognizable artistic signature, combining emotional intensity, richness of timbre, and expressive commitment.
These recordings have been unanimously acclaimed by the international press, notably its recent version of Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s opera David et Jonathas (CVS label), awarded both a Diamant from Opéra Magazine and the Preis der Deutschen Schallplatten Kritik in Germany, as well as the Grands Motets by J.-C. de Mondonville, distinguished with a Diapason d’Or.
An ambassador of French musical excellence and a member of FEVIS, Marguerite Louise continues its artistic journey thanks to the loyal support of the Fondation Orange and the Caisse des Dépôts—its principal patrons—as well as the City of Versailles.
Marguerite Louise is not merely a name: it is a presence, a source, a breath.
She was Marguerite Louise Couperin (1676–1728), cousin of François Couperin, the celebrated harpsichordist and organist to Louis XIV. Admitted to Versailles in 1702 as a voix de dessus, she is described by Titon du Tillet as “one of the most celebrated musicians of her time,” singing with “great lightness of voice and a marvelous sense of taste.”
For this woman—one of the very first allowed to sing from the tribune of the Royal Chapel—Couperin composed some of his most delicate and daring pages: music shaped for a rare purity, an airy yet grounded presence (emancipated from the basso continuo, entrusted to the violins, often accompanied by a flute), light and profound all at once.
It was this precious duality that one day imposed itself as an obvious truth: Marguerite Louise would be our name, our muse, our horizon. She inspires our musical gesture as a figure of avant-garde spirit, a breath of freshness and grace, but also as a form of inner spirituality that resonates across the centuries.
No contemporary portrait of her has come down to us. And so Marguerite Louise is reborn today in the faces of women of our own time—free, emancipated, creative women who make the Baroque stage vibrate with the same ardor she once embodied. Through them, through their presence and momentum, Marguerite Louise continues to exist, as a symbol of emancipation and freedom.
French conductor and organist Gaétan Jarry, born in 1986, is the founder of the ensemble Marguerite Louise..
After a musical training distinguished by numerous first prizes at the Conservatories of Versailles and Saint-Maur-des-Fossés, he also graduated in organ from the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris.
In 2016, he was appointed co-titular organist of the Historic Great Organ of Saint-Gervais Church in Paris. His passion for the voice and early repertoire led him to create the ensemble Marguerite Louise, a choir and orchestra that has become a leading presence on the international baroque scene.
Gaétan Jarry is also one of the principal guest conductors of the Orchestre de l’Opéra Royal de Versailles, with which he has conducted productions including Le Nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni and Die Entführung aus dem Serail by Mozart, Bach’s St John Passion, La Fille du Régiment by Gaetano Donizetti, and this season Mozart’s Requiem as well as Rossini’s La Cenerentola.
With around twenty recordings widely praised by the international press, his discography is largely devoted to French Baroque music, in which he brings the distinctive aesthetic of Marguerite Louise to large-scale repertoire for choir and orchestra, including operas and grand royal motets by Lully, Charpentier, Lalande, Rameau and Mondonville.
As a soloist, he released Noëls Baroques à Versailles in 2019, recorded on the Great Organ of the Royal Chapel of Versailles in collaboration with the Pages of the Centre de musique baroque de Versailles. This was followed by Le Grand Jeu (2020), a recital devoted to the French Baroque organ, and Handel’s Organ Concertos (2021). In 2023, he released the opera David et Jonathas by Marc-Antoine Charpentier.
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