Philippe Jaroussky

A leading light among contemporary countertenors, Philippe Jaroussky has earned widespread critical praise for his extensive recorded explorations of Baroque repertoire. After a series of striking stage appearances and discs in the opening years of the 2000s, he expanded his scope to encompass French art song, Schubert lieder, and comparable works. Maintaining a high output as a recording artist, he frequently issues multiple albums within a single calendar year. Among his 2024 projects were the album Schubert: Lieder and his participation in the multi-countertenor production Hasse: Serpentes ignei in deserto.

Born in the Paris suburb of Maisons-Laffitte on January 13, 1978, Jaroussky began musical training on the violin and received a diploma from the early music department of the Conservatoire de Paris in 1996. Piano study also formed part of his youthful education, yet an encounter with countertenor Fabrice di Falco, known as the “creole Farinelli,” prompted a shift to vocal training under soprano Nicole Fallien. Major Baroque opera engagements followed by 1997, when he took part in a Monteverdi trilogy conducted by Jean-Claude Malgoire. Combining lyrical sweetness with technical power in the demanding arias of Handel and Vivaldi, he established himself as a significant presence early in the twenty-first century. His debut recording, the 2001 release of Alessandro Scarlatti’s opera Sedecia, re di Gerusalemme, marked the start of an extensive discography.

Jaroussky maintains a broad command of Baroque opera and has contributed substantially to its revival through historically informed performances, supplying a present-day counterpart for the soprano roles originally written for castrato singers. He has collaborated with leading period-instrument ensembles both in France and internationally, among them Les Arts Florissants, Les Musiciens du Louvre, and Le Concert d’Astrée. Numerous cantatas and smaller-scale works appear on his recordings, many made with his own ensemble, Artaserse, which takes its name from Leonardo Vinci’s opera Artaserse, in whose modern premiere Jaroussky performed. His catalog includes full operas, thematic programs such as the 2004 release Un concert pour Mazarin, and recital discs like Porpora: Arias from 2013, devoted to music associated with the eighteenth-century countertenor Farinelli.

Multiple Victoires de la musique classique awards and German Echo Klassik prizes stand among his honors. Beginning with the 2009 album Opium: Mélodies françaises, Jaroussky has occasionally ventured into repertoire less commonly explored by countertenors. One such project is À sa guitare, recorded with guitarist Thibaut Garcia and issued in 2021 on the Erato label, the imprint responsible for most of his subsequent releases. Throughout the early and middle 2020s he sustained a vigorous schedule of recordings for Erato that encompassed both Baroque works and music from later periods, among them the 2023 collection Forgotten Arias and the solo recital Schubert: Lieder the following year.