Les Voix humaines

The Canadian ensemble Les Voix Humaines originated as a core pair of viola da gamba performers, Susie Napper and Margaret Little, and periodically enlarged into the Les Voix Humaines Ensemble; both configurations have concentrated on French Baroque repertoire.

Napper and Little established the ensemble in Montreal during 1985, drawing its title from a composition by Marin Marais, whose works have figured regularly in their programs. Each musician has also participated in additional Canadian early-music organizations, with Napper contributing to Le Studio de Musique Ancienne de Montréal and Les Boréades de Montréal, while Little has performed with Rebel, Four Nations, and Trinity Consort. Rapid recognition followed, leading to engagements across Europe, the United States, Australia, Israel, and Canada; visibility increased further after the 1991 release of the film Tous les matins du monde, which examined the life of Marais’s instructor Jean de Sainte-Colombe, an artist whose compositions aligned directly with the duo’s focus.

Guest artists appearing with Les Voix Humaines have included soprano Suzie LeBlanc, countertenor Daniel Taylor, and theorbist Sylvain Bergeron. The expanded Les Voix Humaines Ensemble has enabled performances of viol-consort works by composers such as Purcell and Dowland, while the broader programming also reaches composers of the High Baroque, among them Bach.

A substantial discography began with the 1995 ATMA Classique release Le Constant et l'infidèle; subsequent recordings have appeared predominantly on the same Canadian label, among them the 2019 album Le Monde de Sainte-Colombe, which presented excerpts drawn from the complete Sainte-Colombe duos that the ensemble recorded in the mid-2000s. Napper has instructed at McGill University, and Little has taught at the University of Montreal.