La Néréide
Since its creation in 2019, La Néréide has distinguished itself through its exploration of repertoire for equal voices, with a particular focus on music composed for female vocal ensembles. Praised for their “impressive expertise, impeccable balance and accuracy” (Olyrix), the trio, comprising sopranos Julie Roset and Camille Allérat and mezzo-soprano Xenia Puskarz Thomas, use imaginative programming and historically informed performance to champion rarely performed repertoire spanning several centuries.
Their debut album, Luzzaschi: Il Concerto Segreto, was released on Ricercar in September 2023 to widespread critical acclaim, including a nomination for the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik. The recording explores the musical world of the Concerto delle Dame at the sixteenth-century court of Ferrara, centring on works by court composer Luzzasco Luzzaschi alongside music by Francesca Caccini, Claudio Monteverdi and Luca Marenzio. Recreating the intimate conditions of the original performances with harpsichord, viol, harp and lute accompaniment, the programme has been presented to enthusiastic audiences across Europe, including in Paris, Dijon, Tourcoing, Namur, Ambronay, Regensburg, Póvoa de Varzim, Bremen, Brussels and Utrecht.
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In 2025, La Néréide released their second album, Le coeur et la raison, on Alpha Classics. Dedicated to late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century France, the programme explores the unique musical life of the Maison Royale de Saint-Louis de Saint-Cyr, the school founded by Madame de Maintenon under the patronage of Louis XIV. At its centre are two distinctive settings of the Miserere by Clérambault and Lalouette, both composed for the institution’s exceptional female vocal forces. Performed with organ, viola da gamba and archlute, the album was hailed as “exceptionally beautiful” by Gramophone. La Néréide has since presented the programme in Avignon, Froville, Saint-Michel-en-Thiérache, Normandy and Utrecht. This season, La Néréide bring Le coeur et la raison to Radio France, in a special concert with La Maîtrise de Radio France and Sofi Jeannin.
In collaboration with Holland Baroque, La Néréide presented A Chloris, a programme of Rameau, Fauré and Piaff on tour in the Netherlands, including performances at Amsterdam’s Het Concertgebouw, Utrecht’s TivoliVredenburg and at De neuwe Kerk in Den Haag. They have presented their a cappella programme, Les petites filles sages, including music by Caplet, Poulenc and Duruflé, at Kiosque Pulsations Bordeaux and Festival de Saint-Denis.
The ensemble was formed while its founding members were studying at the Haute École de Musique de Genève. Its name references the Nereids of Greek mythology, while the singular form reflects the trio’s artistic unity and shared musical vision.
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Peppie Johnson Associate Artist Manager, VOICE
Peppie Johnson Associate Artist Manager, VOICE
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“The concept of the album is highly distinctive and very interesting. In the Miserere, the timbres of the three sopranos from the ensemble La Néréide blend or respond to each other with complete sisterhood, so much so that one rarely tries to discern who is singing what. In the solo airs, each brings a specific colour yet grace always prevails.”
“What is striking is that these three voices not only complement each other through their timbre, but they listen to one another. They merge, yet they also collide – subtle irregularities, deliberate breaths, infinitesimal nuances of intonation. This is precisely what creates the charm.
The programme is ingeniously conceived: it does not offer a linear narrative, but rather allows emotions to overlap – a dialogue between heaven and earth. And although the CD includes 27 tracks, it never feels overloaded. It unfolds instead like a finely woven fan, slowly, piece by piece.”
“This is an exceptionally beautiful album – a fusion of imagination, intellectual curiosity and technical mastery that invites listeners into the sound world of La Néréide.”
“The three sopranos of La Néréide show impressive expertise. Singing together in imitation, and polyphony, they weave the audience into the threads of their melodies, like sea goddesses transforming into enchanting sirens. The texts are carefully interpreted and their voices project strongly but with flexibility and delicacy. They ornament their vocal lines with remarkable ease and perform Marenzio’s Belle ne fe’ natura with impeccable balance and accuracy.”
“This new recording is highly recommendable. The singing of Camille Allérat, Julie Roset and Ana Vieira Leite is impressive. This is technically demanding repertoire, which is not easy to perform, but they succeed with flying colours. It is essential that the many details in Luzzaschi’s setting of the texts are realized to the full, and that is the case here.”
“Sopranos Camille Allérat, Julie Roset, and Ana Vieira Leite sang in striking synchrony. Their voices blended like wine from the same vineyard: distinct varietals with subtle, resonant differences. (…) Instrumental contributions lent a golden aura to the voices. Carried by three young artists of extraordinary sensitivity, the voices of Ferrara’s hidden women rang out beneath stone vaults and sunlit windows, lifted high, reverberant, and free.”
“This is superb singing from La Néréide, a young ensemble of three wonderfully matched artists, who bring a haunting beauty to the music of Italian Renaissance composer Luzzasco Luzzaschi.”
“Luzzaschi’s works demand virtuosity in ornamentation and clear diction, which all three sopranos possess. Light and comfortable in the treble for Ana Vieira Leite, balanced for Julie Roset, more timbre for Camille Allérat, the three voices coordinate perfectly. The interpretation suits the dramatic meaning within each piece.”
“La Néréide sing complex ornamentations, performed with astonishing ease and naturalness. The precision of the attacks, the constant accuracy, the support and the modelling of the phrases give this rich polyphony a singular life. The emotion is there, whatever the character of the piece: each listener is suspended to the expression. Listening within the ensemble, the key to repertoire with imitation, is masterful; the freshness of the programme and all the vocal qualities of the singers are a source of constant happiness. Freshness, purity of emission, lightness, colours, contrasts, fusion of timbres, harmony, happiness…”
“La Néréide is distinguished by the harmonious, warm timbres adorned with a delicate vibrato, of its three singers. Their interpretation, all balanced, is of finesse and precision even in the superabundant passages and ornaments.”
“It is impressive how the three voices of Camille Allérat, Julie Roset and Ana Vieira Leite blend and beguile with virtuoso ornamentation, this is vocal art at the highest level.”
“the three young musicians’ voices blend together perfectly; it’s a very beautiful first recording”
