Artistic direction of the Ensemble Amarillis
Baroque recorder and oboe
Hailed by the international press for its musical sensitivity, his virtuoso talents and the contrasting subtlety of his playing, Héloïse Gaillard was quickly noticed by her qualities as a soloist.
She is a Knight of the National Order of Merit.
She won with the Ensemble Amarillis, of which she has been artistic director since 1994, three first international prizes : First Prize in the International Competition organized by the York Early Music Festival, First Prize in the Ensemble Music Competition organized by FNAPEC as well as First Prize in the International Sinfonia Competition in Périgord chaired by Gustav Leonhardt. Supported by the city of Angers since 2012, approved by the Pays de la Loire Region, the department of Maine et Loire and the State, Amarillis was honored with the Classic Revelations of the Adami. According to his projects, the Ensemble is supported by Adami, la spedidam, the Orange Foundation, the Baroque Music Center of Versailles…
Amarillis collaborates very regularly with the best current singers : Patricia Petibon, Stephanie d'Oustrac, Sonya Yoncheva, Karine Deshayes, Mathias Vidal… And according to the programming, brings together internationally renowned solo musicians in the same spirit of chamber music.
Héloïse Gaillard designs programs addressing the different repertoires of European baroque music with the desire to explore a repertoire that is often little-known or even unpublished.. The fruit of this musicological and historical work generates original thematic programs (Checkers games at court, Love and masquerade, Magician flames with Patricia Petibon, Fervor and ecstasy with Stéphanie d´Oustrac…) but Amarillis also likes to revisit famous works (concertos by Antonio Vivaldi, concertos de Johann Sebastian Bach and Georg Philipp Telemann, Cantates by Jean-Philippe Rameau, Georg Friedrich Handel's chamber music repertoire…).
Finally, Héloïse Gaillard creates projects combining different musical trends, like jazz or contemporary music, as well as shows in which other artistic universes are brought together such as theater, dance or story (Inspiration baroque with Louis Sclavis, The Double Coquette associating the music of Dauvergne with the music of Gérard Pesson, the poetry of Pierre Alferi and the costumes of Annette Messager, Tafelmusik with the collaboration of scenographer Eric Soyer…).
Héloïse Gaillard is also principal flute in the ensemble Les Talens Lyriques directed by Christophe Rousset as well as in the ensemble Le Concert d’Astrée under the direction of Emmanuelle Haïm. She has notably been invited to perform as a soloist at the Berlin Philharmonic on several occasions, with the London Philharmonic Orchestra or with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam.
She has also been principal oboe since 1996 at the Spiritual Concert conducted by Hervé Niquet.
Passionate about teaching from an early age, she created the baroque oboe class within the early music department of the Aix en Provence CRR and taught there until 2015. She gets in 2005 the Certificate of Aptitude for Ancient Music. She is regularly invited to give Master classes in France, in England, in South America, in Asia…
She is, September 2019 to december 2020, Baroque oboe teacher at the National Conservatory of Music in Paris.
She is invited as a teacher to the first international academy created by the Baroque Music Center of Versailles in July 2020 as well as at the international academy of the Sablé festival in August 2020. She also holds a degree in musicology from the Sorbonne.
On the other hand with its Amarillis Ensemble, she has been involved for many years in education and training projects for shared knowledge and for the discovery and democratization of baroque music which are aimed at very diverse audiences..
Besides the 22 records she made with Amarillis, she participates in numerous recordings as a soloist released on CD or DVD for Naxos, Glossa, EMI, Alpha, notably with Le Concert Spirituel, The Astrée Concert, The Lyric Talens, The Flourishing Arts…
A one hour portrait, made in 2005 by Mezzo and France 2, was dedicated to her. France Music, the BBC, Half, Classical radio and Arte web live regularly broadcast its concerts.
Her recording for solo recorder by 12 fantasies by Georg Philipp Telemann for the Agogique label received a Choc Classica.
She was the artistic director of the Cunault Musical Hours festival in Maine et Loire between 2019 and 2021. She was appointed in September 2021 artistic director in charge of programming for the cultural affairs department of the Saumur Val de Loire Agglomeration.
In 2023, she created the Academy with Patricia Petibon Songs of Ulysses to help train the artists of tomorrow and share his passion for the intersection of artistic aesthetics and the bridges between arts and sciences.