Ensemble Jupiter

Founded in 2018 by lutenist Thomas Dunford, Ensemble Jupiter was born from the meetings and friendships he has formed with brilliant musicians of his generation: among them Lea Desandre, Jean Rondeau, Douglas Balliett, Bruno Philippe, Sophie Gent, Thibaut Garcia and Peter Whelan. The great freedom of playing, listening skills and improvisation acquired by each of them over the years allow them to perform a wide-ranging repertory; from Vivaldi, Handel, Destouches, Couperin and Francesco Mancini through to pieces by Joaquín Rodrigo and original compositions by Thomas Dunford and Douglas Balliett.

Performances in the 2025/26 season have taken Ensemble Jupiter to venues including the Opéra Comique, London’s Wigmore Hall and Bozar in Brussels, to Riga, Bern, Stuttgart and to the Bremen Music Festival and numerous French festivals. The ensemble has also toured Europe performing Handel’s Theodora with Lea Desandre, Avey Amereau, Hugh Cutting and Laurence Kilsby. This summer the ensemble presents its new Vivaldi programme Anima in London, Menton, at the Festival de Sable and at the Salzburg Festival.

Ensemble Jupiter’s first disc, released in autumn 2019 for the Alpha Classics label, was dedicated to works by Vivaldi. Alternating extracts from operas and instrumental concertos, it highlights the different soloists of the ensemble. The success of the project has been documented in numerous awards, among them the Caecilia Prize awarded by the Union of the Belgian Music Press and, in 2020, an International Classical Music Award.

In 2021 the group released Lea Desandre’s first recital disc Amazone, featuring arias from French and Italian operas of the 17th and 18th centuries, and in 2022 it released Eternal Heaven with Lea Desandre and Iestyn Davies, a disc dedicated to Handel’s English oratorios. In autumn 2025 the ensemble released its most recent album Songs of Passion with Lea Desandre, featuring works by Purcell and Dowland.

Jupiter is supported by Fondation Orange, Cartier, Centre National de la Musique (CNM), DRAC île de France, ADAMI and SPEDIDAM, and is in residence at Fondation Singer-Polignac. Jupiter is a member of FÉVIS and Scène Ensemble.