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The Ensemble ~ Musicians and collaborators

Born in a Sephardic Jewish family in 1964, endowed with a natural voice that was developed in her early years, Françoise Atlan started to study piano with her mother at the age of six. At the end of her musical studies at the conservatoires of Saint-Etienne and Aix-en-Provence, she was honoured with a piano and chamber music award (1984). As a musicology student at the Université d'Aix-Marseille, she worked both her vocal technique and the lyric repertoire with Andréa Guiot at the Opéra de Paris.

As a member of the Choeur contemporain conducted by Roland Hayrabedian, Françoise Atlan distinguished herself in the vocal music of the composer Maurice Ohana, who entrusted her with the soloist part of his Cantigas, the recording of which obtained the Grand Prix de l'Académie du Disque (1987). From 1987 to 1989, she was featured as first soloist in the vocal ensemble Musicatreize, which specialised in contemporary music (Ohana, Ligeti, Nono).

Her Judeo-Berber roots led Atlan to develop a passion for traditional music, and particularly music from the Mediterranean Basin. Her work from 1990 to 1998 as a singer of the group Aksak, which played a repertoire of Turkish, Greek and Armenians songs, provided the opportunity to work in both Arab-Andalusian repertoire (with Mahmoud Guettat and Toufik Bestandij) and Judeo-Arab (with Cheikh Zekri) repertoire.

Her debut album ''Romances Sefardies'' recorded in 1992 was met with great critical acclaim, whereas her second CD entitled ''Entre la Rose et le Jasmin'' received the Diapason d'Or in 1994.

Welcomed with equal enthusiasm in Morocco (Fez, Rabat, Casablanca in 1994), in Switzerland (Montreux, Yverdon in 1993) and in France (Abbaye du Thoronet in 1993 for the Chants Sacrés de la Méditerranée, and in Arsenal de Metz for the Festival Transméditerranéen in 1994), and receiving warm applauses in Belgrade, Tokyo and Kyoto, she took part in the recording of the album ''Borboréo'' by the guitarist Juan Carmona. She also achieved success in the USA, Japan, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Great-Britain, Morocco, Tunisia, ex-Yugoslavia, Israel, and continued her research on Mediterranean repertoires.

In 1998, she was the winner of the Prix Villa Médicis Hors les Murs, which enabled her to work for three years on the Arab-Andalusian repertoire of the Fez tradition, alongside Mohammed Briouel. Together, they recorded ''Nawba M'Cherqi'', which includes a selection of Arab-Andalusian music.

In 2001, Françoise Atlan was involved in the creation of the work of the composer Florence Bachet, ''Femmes'', a commission from Radio-France, with the participation of the Ensemble Fa under the direction of Dominique My. That same year, accompanied by the Armenian Ensemble Goussan, she offered a program of classical and traditional Armenian Music (5th to 19th century) at the Festival d'Ambronay.

Since 2003, Françoise Atlan notably performed on the best stages in the USA, Japan, Canada, Holland, Belgium, Norway, Israel, Italy, Spain, Corsica, Tunisia, Morocco, Switzerland, Great-Britain and Germany.

Since 1998, she has been giving master classes in France (Centre de Musique Médiévale de Paris), in Switzerland (Geneva and Bale) and in Morocco (Académie de Rabat) on a regular basis.