Anna Besson – flute

Anna Besson, a graduate of the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris and the Haute École de Musique de Genève and winner of a scholarship from the Fondation Cziffra, is acknowledged for her mastery of both the modern flute and its earlier counterparts and her ability to interpret their repertories, from the late seventeenth century right up to new works of today, in accordance with the appropriate codes and techniques.

While regularly invited to play at the Paris Opéra and in chamber ensembles alike, she has pursued a parallel career on the Baroque flute as a soloist, and as a chamber and orchestral musician in such prestigious ensembles as Le Concert Spirituel, Les Arts Florissants, Insula Orchestra, Le Concert d’Astrée, La Chambre Philharmonique, and the quartet Nevermind.

She is a founding member of the ensemble a nocte temporis (dir. Reinoud Van Mechelen), with which she seeks to bring the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century repertory for tenor and flute to new heights. The group’s two recordings (Erbarme dich, 2016, and Clérambault, Cantates Françaises, 2018) received critical acclaim and were awarded two CHOC de Classica as well as Cinq Diapasons and the Caecilia Prize.

Her discography as a soloist includes Telemann’s Double Concerto for traverso and recorder with Erik Bosgraaf and Friends (Brilliant Classics, 2016), Telemann’s Paris Quartets with Nevermind (Alpha Classics, 2017), L’Horloge et l’âbime, a new work by Fabien Touchard (Hortus, 2018), The Dubhlinn Gardens with a nocte temporis (Alpha, 2018) and Molter’s Concerto for traverso in D major with Die Kölner Akademie (CPO, 2020).

Anna Besson has been invited to perform in such leading concert halls and festivals as the Opéra Garnier and Opéra Bastille, the Philharmonie de Paris, the Elbphilharmonie, the Barbican Centre, the Boston Early Music Festival, the Utrecht Early Music Festival, MA Festival Bruges, the Salzburg Festival and the Festival Mezzo. She has recently been appointed professor of traverso at the Koninklijk Conservatorium in Brussels, and gives regular masterclasses and recitals in France and abroad.

CD: in 2021 Anna released together with fortepianist Olga Pashchenko the CD ‘Variations on Folk Songs’, issued by the prestigious label Alpha Classics.