Marcel Pérès

Marcel Pérès (born 15 July 1956, Oran, Algeria) is a French musicologist, composer, choral director and singer, and the founder of the early music group Ensemble Organum. He is an authority on Gregorian and pre-Gregorian chant.

Contents

• A conversation with marcel p r s part six ancient music with modern singers
• Marcel Prs Ensemble Organum sing Chante Corse Requiem
• Ensemble Organum
• Songs
• References

Pérès was born into an Algerian family of Spanish origin which was repatriated to France. He grew up in Nice, where he sang at the cathedral and was organist at the Anglican church. He trained in organ and composition at the Nice conservatoire, before continuing his studies in church music at the Royal School of Church Music and at English cathedrals. He worked at the Studio de musique ancienne de Montréal (Montreal early music studio) and for the National Film Board of Canada. In 1979 he returned to France where he studied medieval music under Michel Huglo at the École pratique des hautes études.

In 1982 he founded Ensemble Organum, a group specialising in "pre- and para-Gregorian" chant.

Pérès' compositions include Le Livre des morts égyptiens ("The Egyptian Book of the Dead"), written in 1979, and Mysteria Apocalypsis.

In 1990 he was awarded the Leonardo da Vinci Prize by the Italian government, and since 1996 he has been a Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. He was musical director of Kaj Munk's play, Ordet, at the Festival d'Avignon in 2008. In 2013 he received a title of Honorary Citizen of Jarosław.