CONCERT SERIES

Prof. Francis Bardot directed the Children’s Choirs of the Paris Opera for twenty-three years. He also served for ten years as the Choirmaster of the Cathedral of Chartres. His numerous recordings, acclaimed by the critics, testify to forty years of ongoing, fruitful partnership with prestigious conductors, lyrical singers, pianists and organists.

As the honorary Director of the Department of Culture of the city Levallois and of the Conservatoire Maurice Ravel, he now dedicates all his time to mentoring the 320 members—children, students and adults, amateur or professional singers—of the choirs he created: the regional children’s choir (Chœur d’Enfants d’Ile-de-France), the regional young people’s choir (Jeune Chœur d’Ile-de-France), the regional professional choir (Ensemble Vocal d’Ile-de-France) and the regional adults’ choir (Chœur Symphique d’Ile de France) as well as the choir of the Paris Symphonic Orchestra since Cyril Diederich entrusted him with the charge of conducting it in June 2012.

Leo Abbott, Director Emeritus of the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, is a graduate of the St. Paul Choir School, Cambridge, and the Chaloff School of Music, Boston. His teachers include Theodore Marier, George Faxon, Clarence Watters, and Flor Peeters in organ; Naji Hakim in improvisation; and Julius Chaloff in piano. He holds the Fellowship and Choirmaster certificates of the American Guild of Organists (AGO), has won first prize in several international and national competitions, and was a finalist at the Grand Prix de Chartres in 1984.

In 1986, Leo was appointed music director and organist of the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, Boston.Mr. Abbott has performed throughout the United States and in France, Belgium, and Ireland, and for conventions of the AGO and the Organ Historical Society. He has performed at Notre-Dame and Saint-Sulpice, Paris in 2010 and 2018.