Les Délices (pronounced Lay day-lease) brings long-forgotten music alive for contemporary audiences. Founded by baroque oboist Debra Nagy in 2009, Les Délices has established a reputation for unique programs that “can’t help but get one listening and thinking in fresh ways” (San Francisco Classical Voice). The New York Times observed that “Concerts and recordings by Les Délices are journeys of discovery” while UK Classical Source added, “The centuries roll away when the members of Les Délices bring this long-existing music to communicative and sparkling life.”

Les Délices made its New York debut before a sold-out audience at the Frick Collection in May 2010. Recent and upcoming performances for the ensemble include Music Before 1800 (New York City), the Boston Early Music Festival, Morrison Chamber Music Center at San Francisco State University, Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, San Francisco Early Music Society, the Yale Collection of Musical Instruments, and Columbia University’s Miller Theatre. In addition to touring engagements, Les Délices presents an acclaimed four-concert series in Northeast Ohio and they have been featured on WCPN, WCLV and WKSU in Ohio, WQXR in New York, and NPR’s syndicated Harmonia and Sunday Baroque. Les Délices has  released six acclaimed CDs that make compelling cases for the music of lesser-known French Baroque composers (Myths & Allegories and Age of Indulgence), explore the relationship between airs de cours and jazz (Songs without Words), and celebrate the eighteenth-century roots of traditional Scots songs and reels (The Highland Lassie).

While music of the French Baroque remains a core specialty of Les Délices, recent projects have seen Les Délices bring their “outstanding artistry and verve” (American Record Guide) to music by Black eighteenth-century composer Charles Ignatius Sancho, Classical chamber music from the Age of Revolutions, late-Medieval music, and more. The ensemble’s commitment to creating powerful new arts experiences for audiences extends to commissioning works that expand the “canon” of early music to include historically underrepresented composers: Les Délices has featured commissions by Jonathan Woody and Sydney Guillaume on tour and they are launching a multi-year commissioning project exploring myth and its impact on our lives beginning in 2025. The first installment in the project, “A moment’s oblivion,” features a commission from Viet Cuong with GRAMMY-nominated tenor Nicholas Phan.

The global pandemic marked an important evolutionary period for the ensemble. Les Délices was a leader in conceiving concerts for the virtual space and created SalonEra, a webseries and podcast for early music that opened a world of music to audiences at home. Now in its 5th Season, they have produced over 45 SalonEra episodes and created feature opportunities for over 80 artists while earning support and recognition from the National Endowment for the Arts (2023) and Early Music America (2022 Laurette Goldberg Award). Visit www.salonera.org and www.lesdelices.org to learn more.

UPDATED JUNE 2024. PLEASE DESTROY ALL PREVIOUS VERSIONS.