Damien Guillon is now frequently invited as a conductor: he conducted Caldara’s Maddalena ai piedi di Cristo with Les Musiciens du Paradis, Bach’s Magnificat with the Café Zimmermann and the Chamber Choir of Rouen, Bach’s Cantatas with the Collegium Vocale Gent in Saintes Festival etc.
In 2009, Damien Guillon founded Le Banquet Céleste to promote an exacting work on the baroque repertoire, with a regular team of singers and instrumentalists who were all specially trained in the styles approached by the ensemble. Among other upcoming projects, Damien Guillon is working on a new programme of Christmas cantatas by J.S. Bach, Lamentations and Respons by J.D. Zelenka, and a stage version of Haendel’s Acis and Galatea, and further to the success of Bach Alto solo Cantatas a new recording of Bach’s Psalm 51 due for release in March 2016.
In demand for his concert work, recent engagements include: Bach’s Saint Matthew Passion with Philippe Herreweghe and the Collegium Vocale Gent (Lincoln Center in New York, Palau de la Musica in Barcelone, Baden-Baden Festival etc…), with the Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and with Bernard Labadie and Les Violons du Roy (Palais Montcalm in Québec and Carnegie Hall in New York); under the batton of Bernard Labadie : Vivaldi’s Selva Regina with the New World Symphony in Miami etc.
Furture engagements included further tours with Philippe Herreweghe of Bach Christmas cantatas, Saint Matthew Passion, Weinachts-oratorium; a European tour of Bach’s Saint Matthew Passion with Raphaël Pichon and Ensemble Pygmalion, Bach’s Cantatas with Nederlandse Bach Society; Bach’s Alto solo cantatas with Café Zimmerman Scarlatti’s St John Passion with Vaclav Luks and Collegium 1704.
Damien Guillon begins his musical knowledge in 1989 at the Maîtrise de Bretagne supervised by Jean-Michel Noël. He receives a full music education from his youngest age and quickly sings as solo soprano in many baroque oratorios as well as at the Rennes Opera in The Magic Flute by Mozart.
From 1998 till 2001, he is a member of the Maîtrise du Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles directed by Olivier Schneebeli, where he improves his vocal technique and deepens his research about early music interpretations with Howard Crook, Jérome Corréas, Alain Buet, Noëlle Barker. He studied continuo, harpsichord and he is in 2014 admitted at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis to receive the teaching of Andreas Scholl.
Currently, his vocal and musical qualities earned him invitations to perform with conductors as famous as Masaaki Suzuki, Vincent Dumestre, Hervé Niquet, Philippe Pierlot, Pierre Hantaï, Jean-Claude Malgoire, Christophe Rousset, Philippe Herreweghe, Jordi Savall, Paul McCreesh and William Christie.
His repertoire ranges from songs of the English Renaissance to Baroque oratorios and operas by Monteverdi (L’Incoronazione di Poppea, Ritrono d’Ulisse in Patria), Bach (Saint John Passion, Saint Matthew Passion, Mass in B minor, Lutherian masses, Christmas Oratorio…), Händel (The Messiah, Teseo, Rinaldo, Athalie, Giulio Cesare), Purcell (King Arthur and Dido and Aeneas), Landi’s Il Sant’Alessio etc…
