Simon-Pierre Bestion

Keyboardist and group leader Simon-Pierre Bestion is the founder of La Tempête, one of France's popular Baroque music groups. He has an unusually wide training background that has enabled him to rethink common repertory works. Bestion and viola da gamba player Julie Dessaint formed the Europa Barocca Chamber Music Ensemble in 2007, and he established the Luce del Canto choir shortly after that. Bestion merged these two groups to form La Tempête in 2015. After experiencing early success with immersive concerts that encompassed elements of staging even in non-theatrical works, La Tempête released the album Azahar. Bestion and La Tempête followed that up with Larmes de Résurrection: Schütz, Schein in 2018, and a recording of Monteverdi's Vespro della Beata Vergine, SV 206, the following year. Bestion and La Tempête returned in 2022 with the album Hypnos, exploring works of various periods linked by the idea of sleep.