STORY OF THE CHOIR AND HIS FOUNDER | OBJECTIVES | THE CHOIR: MEN AND WOMEN’S VOICES | BRIEF HISTORY OF GREGORIAN CHANT

In 1972, Louis-Marie VIGNE (1953-2022), trained as an organist, discovered Gregorian chant at the Abbey of Solesmes. Together with his brother and a few friends, they began singing and praying in a small chapel in Vexin (North-West of Paris region).

At the age of twenty, he met the choirmaster of Solesmes Abbey, Dom Jean Claire. The “Gregorian Choir of Paris” association was officially founded in 1974. Its first members, young musicians, were trained in Solesmes.

In 1981 “The Friends of the Gregorian Choir of Paris for the promotion of Gregorian chant” Association was founded and then declared as a non-profit association:

·      Its purpose is to help the Choir to achieve its ambitions of promotion and education.
·      It also seeks to encourage the practice and coordinate the research on Gregorian chant, part of the European cultural heritage, and make it more known worldwide.

From 1985 to 2020, Louis-Marie VIGNE, has been teaching the class of  “Gregorian Choir direction” at the “Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris” (CNSMDP). https://www.conservatoiredeparis.fr/fr/discipline/choeur-gregorien
In 1993, the Academy of Fine Arts awarded the choir the Liliane-Bettencourt Prize of choral singing.
https://www.fondationbs.org/fr/culture/chant-choral/prix-liliane-bettencourt-pour-le-chant-choral
In 1995, The female Gregorian Choir of Paris was founded, leveraging the promotion of Gregorian chant through tours and concerts abroad.

In 2006, the School of Gregorian chant of Paris was launched to enable as many people as possible to be trained in the tradition of western sacred singing. This vocation therefore became international in scope.

Louis-Marie VIGNE has established himself as a prominent figure in the revival of Gregorian chant. Over the years, the activities of the Choir have diversified but the founding vision remained the same: “to enhance the universality of this sacred chant, look for its permanent forms and ensure the protection of this invisible heritage”.

For almost fifty years the choir and its school have travelled and welcomed more than a hundred students, seminarians and religious from France and around the world (Europe, China, South-Korea, Japan, America, Africa).

The Choir ensures a weekly Sunday Mass in Paris and the entire Holy Week in an Abbey in the countryside, sung in the Gregorian repertoire.