Editorial 2026
by Dominique Longchamp
Prima! La Donna
As the Festival continues to evolve, I must now refer to the 2025–2026 season of the Valloire Baroque Festival, because, in addition to the Festival in July, we launched two cultural initiatives this winter aimed at schoolchildren!
First, the students at the École de Valloire set out to explore Baroque instruments and music; they sang in a choir throughout the year, leading up to the final concert in April, performed in front of their families! Supported by the Festival with the cooperation of the teachers, the project was developed in partnership with the Établissement d’Enseignement Artistique (EEA) – Maurienne Galibier, as well as with artists from the companies Toccata e Fuga and Les nuages passent. In addition, the team brought on board, for the performance, students from the EEA schools in the valley as well as amateur musicians who rehearsed all winter long!
What an adventure!
Our other event was designed for students at Collège Paul Mougin in Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne to spark their interest in “Baroque art in all its forms, including music and architecture”! We offered them a “Discovery of the Baroque” at the church of Saint-Martin-de-la-Porte, a program combining music performed by the Toccata e Fuga Ensemble and an architectural presentation by Amandine Robert, a tour guide, supported by FACIM.
Another exciting challenge!
That said, we are proud to present the “Prima! La Donna” program this July, featuring some of the greatest talents, as Gaël de Kerret explains in his editorial; proud to celebrate these female musicians… “heroines” in a very male-dominated world!
The Festival owes a huge thank you to everyone who makes it a success: the audience, the artists, our patrons, partners, the elected officials who provide funding, the parish, hoteliers, and lodging providers—not to mention the professional staff and volunteers—as well as the Municipality of Valloire, the Tourist Office, and the Technical Services Department for their unwavering support.
Dominique Longchamp, President of the Friends of the Valloire Baroque Festival, Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters
Dominique Longchamp
In 2009, Dominique Longchamp brought together the founding team of the Valloire Baroque Festival, for which he had laid the groundwork. This team quickly evolved into an organizing committee, comprising some twenty residents of Valloire and “adopted” members, led—since the first Festival in 2010 and year after year—by the project’s initiator. Today, driven by the cohesion and harmony of their team, the organizers are becoming increasingly proficient in “their craft,” and it is with pride that they receive words of encouragement, such as those from a Savoyard elected official: “I congratulate you on the quality of the work done to promote this wonderful event, which does credit to the cultural programming of the Maurienne region.” Dominique Longchamp is an Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters.