Lucile Boulanger

Popular in early music circles, Lucile Boulanger plays viola da gamba as a soloist and with many period ensembles. Boulanger has also been active as a voice-over actress. Boulanger was born in France on June 21, 1986. Unusually, she studied the viola da gamba from childhood rather than switching to it from another instrument. She took up the gamba at age five, taking lessons from Christine Plubeau, continuing to work with her until she was admitted to the Conservatoire de Paris. There, her principal teacher was Ariane Maurette. Boulanger received a diploma from the Conservatory of Music, Dance and Theater of Cergy-Pontoise in Cergy, France, where she studied with Jérôme Hantaï and received highest honors in solo and chamber music studies. She rounded out her education at the Conservatoire de Paris (the CNSMD Paris), where she studied with Christophe Coin and earned a diploma in 2009. Boulanger also took master classes with Wieland Kuijken, Anne-Marie Lasla, and Philippe Pierlot. Top prizes, including a first-place showing at the Concours International Bach-Abel in 2009, helped her launch her career. In 2012, she made her recording debut on the Alpha label, joining frequent duet partner Arnaud de Pasquale on an album of Bach's sonatas for viola da gamba and keyboard. From childhood, Boulanger found parts in French films, as a voice-over actress and, as a child, in live action; she appeared in the 1992 film La place au père, and as a teen, she played Amy Winehouse in an eight-film series called Annie & Quincy. She provided the voices for several adaptations of U.S. material, playing Dora the Explorer and Lilly Truscott, friend and accomplice of Hannah Montana. Boulanger's film and television career slowed as her work as a gambist became more regular. She collaborated with well-established Baroque chamber groups, including Les Talens Lyriques, Les Arts Florissants, and the Ricercar Consort, and with larger ensembles such as Raphaël Pichon's Pygmalion and Sébastien Daucé's Ensemble Correspondances. Boulanger and de Pasquale have toured extensively, often giving recitals of Bach's music. In addition to the music of the Baroque, Boulanger has a strong commitment to contemporary music and has commissioned new works from various composers. She has recorded for Alpha, Mirare, and Harmonia Mundi, returning in 2022 with the Alpha recording Solo: Bach-Abel, featuring music by Bach and Carl Friedrich Abel. ~ James Manheim, Rovi