Nevermind

The love and passion of ancient repertoire and music from all horizons led Anna Besson, Louis Creac'h, Robin Pharo and Jean Rondeau to create Nevermind in 2013. Together, their mission is to share the works they love with a wide and varied audience, championing and transcending the quartet repertoire (flute, violin, viola da gamba and harpsichord) of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Nevermind’s numerous concerts have only reinforced their conviction and the friendship shared by these four musicians emanates through their passion and sincere love of playing, as is evidenced in the striking complicity of their collaborations.

In 2023/24, Nevermind champions the work of 17^th-century composer Elizabeth Jacquet de la Guerre, having already performed her music to great acclaim in 2022. A notable season highlight is the 10-year anniversary of the ensemble, which they will celebrate onstage at the Philharmonie de Paris and will follow with performances at the BOZAR Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels, Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, and Muziekcentrum De Bijloke in Gent.

September 2021 saw the highly anticipated release of Nevermind’s third album recorded for the Alpha / Outhere label, which delves into the quartets of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. The group’s previous album Quatuors Parisiens was dedicated to the work of Georg-Philipp Telemann and was released in 2017 by Alpha / Outhere following a residence at the Abbaye aux Dames de Saintes. Nevermind's first album with Alpha / Outhere, Conversations, was released in 2016 with the aim of giving an insight on French quartets from the first half of the 18th century, highlighting almost completely unknown pieces composed by two virtuoso violinists: Jean-Baptiste Quentin and Louis-Gabriel Guillemain.

Nevermind have showcased their virtuosity at prestigious venues across Europe including the Auditorium of the Louvre, Wiener Konzerthaus, Wigmore Hall and the Barbican in London, Amsterdam’s Muziekgebouw, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Konzerthaus Dortmund, Alte Oper Frankfurt, Centra Nacional de Difusión Musical in Madrid, the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, Concertgebouw Brugge, and the Salle de Musique in la Chaux-de-Fonds. Their international tours have also taken them as far afield as the United States, Canada, Russia, Iceland, and the Far East; notable highlights include the Boston Early Music Festival, Oberlin Conservatory in Ohio, Hong Kong City Hall, and a highly successful tour of Australia in 2019 with visits to Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra, Adelaide, Newcastle and Brisbane. A typical Summer season will also see them perform at numerous festivals, with past appearances at the Rheingau Musik Festival, Utrecht Early Music Festival, the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, Prague Spring Festival, Festival Ravel, Festival of Saintes, Bel-Air Claviers Festival, and Gstaad Menuhin festival in Switzerland.

The Quartet delved into the world of contemporary music for the first time in 2019 and launched works for violin, flute, viola da gamba and harpsichord entitled La Harpe de David, especially composed for Nevermind by Philippe Hersant. The work was premiered at the International Festival of Sacred and Baroque Music of Froville, the Saintes Festival, the La Chaise-Dieu Festival and the Sinfonia Festival in Périgord.