Call For Applications – S-EEEMERGING Ambronay Academy

The Academy brings together 22 young instrumentalists and singers training, working and playing under the direction of a renowned conductor. In 2027, singer and conductor Damien Guillon will lead the project, with a program which is designed to facilitate collaborative work on a landmark piece: Georg Friedrich Handel’s Dixit Dominus.

The Academy will be taking place from June 21 to July 20, 2027 : 2 weeks of training and 2 weeks of European Tour – (travel days June 20 and July 21). 

The Academy is free of charge for the participants: transportation, meals and accommodation will be provided. Only the concerts of the tour will be remunerated. The training period is unpaid and is covered by a training agreement.

Auditions of the pre-selected musicians will be held in Paris in December 2026.

👇 To join this training and professional integration program, applicants must: 

• Be 30 years old maximum on the day the training begins
• Have a Historically Informed practice of their instrument or singing
• Have completed higher studies at a national conservatory or equivalent institution
• Have previous experience of playing in a group.

Here’s the list of the different profiles we need:

10 singers : 4 sopranos / 2 altos / 2 tenors / 2 basses

12 instrumentalists : 6 violins / 2 violas / 1 cello / 1 double bass / 1 theorbo / 1 organ-harpsichord

Calendar: 

June 21^st  – July 2^nd  2027: training session in Ambronay (France) and Torroella De Montgrí (Spain)
July 3th – 20^th July : European tour

If you want to join the Ambronay Academy Sustainable-EEEMERGING, click here to find the form.

To apply please send two videos :

For singers : 1 slow aria and 1 fast aria, 1 from Haendel and 1 of your choice from the 1^st half of 18^th century
For instrumentalist : 1 slow aria and 1 fast aria, 1 from Haendel and 1 of your choice from the 1^st half of 18^th century
For theorbo and organ/harpsichord, please send at least one video in basso continuo accompaniment

Application deadline: September 30^th 2026
The auditions will take place on December 2^nd and 3^rd 2026 in Paris
And online on December 7^th and 8^th 2026 (for instrumentalist only)
For any questions, please contact  juliette.brasseur@ambronay.org 

You can also participate to our Info session meeting on September 15^th 2026 at 14:00 : https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/c_6e81dzQUuSv8rY3GY4QA

The programme will feature Handel in Rome

GEORG FRIEDRICH HAENDEL (1685-1759)

Nisi Dominus, HWV238
in G major, for soloists, choir and orchestra

Laudate Pueri Dominum, HWV237
in D major, for soprano, choir and orchestra

Concerto grosso, Op. 6 n°6, HWV324
in G minor, for orchestra

Dixit Dominus, HWV232
in G minor, for soloists, choir and orchestra

“I am delighted and honoured to be leading this Ambronay Academy – Sustainable-EEEMERGING 2027. This Academy is designed to facilitate collaborative work on a landmark piece: Georg Friedrich Handel’s Dixit Dominus.

During his trip to Rome in 1707, Handel composed this magnificent work, characterised by exceptional energy and expressive richness. Other motets and psalms from the same italian period round off this programme, which requires total collective commitment and remarkable precision, and provides an ideal musical setting to support young performers at a formative stage of their professional careers.

The entire musical programme has been designed with a view to its variety of styles, its musicological interest, and its educational qualities. The ensemble of around twenty-two musicians will enable each member to invest themselves fully, both musically and personally, reflecting the beauty and demands of Handel’s music.

There is no doubt that Ambronay Abbey and the Torroella de Montgrí Festival will provide us with the serenity needed to foster a genuine spirit of ensemble, based on listening and kindness – qualities essential for in-depth and demanding musical work.

I look forward to bringing together this team of young musicians as they embark on their future careers, and to conveying to the audience the richness, rigour and joy at the heart of G.F. Handel’s music.”

Damien Guillon

Sustainable EEEMERGING

Sustainable-EEEMERGING (S-EEE) is a European cooperative project aiming at the professional integration of young early music ensembles, with the distinctive feature of placing the sustainability at the core of the support. This program is coordinated by the Centre culturel de rencontre d’Ambronay.

The program was launched in 2014. It was born of two main observations:
– early music is essentially European, not national, hence the need to encourage it through cooperation at European level,
– small ensembles (2 to 12 musicians), very flexible in terms of performance and repertoire, are the perfect medium for transmitting this music.

After a first phase (EEEMERGING, 2014-2018), the program has evolved from competitive to cooperative. EEMERGING+ (2019-2023) offered tailor-made support in which innovation played a key role. With this third phase (Sustainable-EEEMERGING, 2024-2027), the program brings professional integration of young ensembles, as well as the whole early music sector, into the concept of sustainability.

Sustainability is to be understood as a development that meets the needs of present generations (particularly the most disadvantaged) without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

How can you develop your career, make it last in time, design projects, organize tours, disseminate music, reduce your environmental impact? How can you be a musician and make a living from your music in a changing world, when live performance is fundamentally linked to the mobility of artists and audience?

As a cooperative laboratory within an ecosystem of 13 European partners, including 2 partners specialized in transitions, Sustainable EEEMERGING’s ambition is to reflect on these questions and to participate in the implementation of new practices.

The Ambronay Academy-Sustainable-EEEMERGING

The Ambronay Academy – Sustainable-EEEMERGING is a training and professional integration program for young musicians. A school-orchestra, the Academy brings together 20 artists, most of them graduates of leading European conservatories, who work together under the direction of a renowned conductor.

www.festivaldetorroella.cat © Academy 2024 with Amandine Beyer, concert at Festival de Torroella

Since its creation in 1993, the Academy has always been a major step in the development of young European artists at the start of their careers. It is now part of Sustainable-EEEMERGING, a European support program for young early music ensembles, providing a unique accompaniment based on the notion of sustainability.   In 25 editions, over 1,000 artists, instrumentalists, singers and dancers participated in the Academy, and some of the stars of the international Baroque scene have made their debut there (Stéphanie D’Oustrac, Patricia Petibon, Reinoud Van Mechelen, Thomas Dunford, Ophélie Gaillard and many others…).