Ensemble Ouranos was created in 2014 upon the initiative of clarinetist Amaury Viduvier. In forming the ensemble, the five young soloists, graduates of the Paris Conservatory of Music and Dance, decided to explore the fascinating repertoire of wind quintets. Moved by a desire to make use of their instrumental virtuosity – rewarded with numerous international prizes – to create a group sound, the members of the quintet quickly began to accumulate important artistic collaborations while offering a resolutely personal interpretation of the repertoire’s great classics. From its inception, the ensemble has had a recurring residency at the Fondation Singer-Polignac.

Fortified by strong experience within the most important French institutions, the five musicians have a mission to nourish the repertoire they have chosen to perform with their own particular momentum. Believers that the wind quintet is the seeding cell of the symphonic orchestra, they have taken as their calling a desire to bring a wide palette of varied colours to the formation, exploring the richness of mixing each instrument’s timbres.

Collaborating with exceptional chamber musicians – such as the pianists Nicholas Angelich, Bertrand Chamayou and Guillaume Vincent, the violinist Renaud Capuçon, the cellist François Salque, as well as pre-existing ensembles such as the Quatuor Hermès – has allowed Ensemble Ouranos to transcend the boundaries of a quintet and broaden its musical scope to unveil the richness of music for wind instruments.

In 2017, Ensemble Ouranos received First Prize, the Audience Prize, the Fondation Bullukian Prize and the Internet Prize at the Lyon International Music Chamber Music Competition.

Photo: © Edouard Bressy