Camille Claudel, Le Chant des Mains

Laure Baert, a renowned soprano whose career has been shaped on France’s greatest opera stages over the past twenty-five years, is also the artistic director of prestigious festivals, working to make opera accessible to all audiences. At the same time, she is a passionate teacher. Growing up in a family of music lovers, Laure began her musical training at the age of five, starting with the piano and then moving on to singing, whilst pursuing university studies in Literature and Musicology.

Her career has led her to win several first prizes in various disciplines at the Conservatoires of Lille and Nancy: piano, singing, music theory, chamber music... In 2003, she won the ‘Voix d’Or Opéra’ at the Concours National des Voix d’Or and distinguished herself as a semi-finalist at the Queen Elisabeth International Competition in 2004.

Throughout her operatic career, Laure has distinguished herself in numerous roles on renowned stages such as the opera houses of Monte Carlo, Nice, Bordeaux, Toulouse, Montpellier, Nancy, Rennes and Metz. There she performs a repertoire ranging from the Baroque to the 20th century: Bach, Pergolesi, Handel, Mozart, Haydn, Donizetti, Poulenc, Offenbach, Rihm, Dusapin… Her affinity for sacred music has led her to perform regularly at iconic venues such as the Saint Louis Cathedral at Les Invalides, Mont Saint Michel, Salle Gaveau, Fontfroide Abbey, and on tour in Portugal, Spain and Austria...

She also frequently performs in recitals and chamber music at numerous festivals alongside Laure Favre-Kahn, Elena Rozanova, David Zobel, Ophélie Gaillard, Diana Ligeti and others. Her enthusiasm, combined with her curiosity, has led her to develop multidisciplinary productions in which social issues lie at the heart of her shows: from ‘Ame Nature’, ‘Etinc’ELLES – destins de femmes’ and ‘Miroir’, which are regularly on tour.

In 2027, ‘Camille Claudel – le chant des mains’ will premiere alongside pianist Pascal Amoyel. True to her enduring interest in female creativity, this production offers an intimate immersion into the soul of the great sculptor. Through Camille Claudel’s deeply moving letters and the music of Debussy, Strohl, Fauré, Bonis, Ravel, Chopin and Liszt, her words become a true theatrical medium, bringing to life the fiery destiny of a free, passionate and tragically broken artist.

For six years, Laure served as artistic director of the Froville Festival and Competition, where she invited the renowned conductor and contralto Nathalie Stutzmann to serve as patron throughout her tenure.

Since 2021, the Sablé Festival has appointed her as its artistic director to further develop this prestigious Baroque music festival, renowned throughout Europe. Since 2022, Laure has invited the conductor Leonardo Garcia-Alarcon – of Cappella Mediterranea – to become the festival’s patron. At the same time, Laure is passionate about passing on her knowledge, having taught piano, singing and musical awareness at her private school for over fifteen years.