Barbara Nestola is a musicologist and research engineer with the CNRS (CESR-CMBV). Her work focuses on the circulation of music between Italy and France and other European countries; on opera productions at the Académie Royale de Musique in Paris;  and on the crossover of musical practices in Paris theatres under the Ancien Régime. She specialises in Italian vocal declamation, delivers singing masterclasses and is involved in opera productions. She regularly prepares professional singers for concerts, recitals, opera productions and audio-visual recordings.

An expert on Marc-Antoine Charpentier, she has published several works about the composer and contributed to CMBV Monumentale publications. Her latest work is about the Duchess of Maine, patron of the Arts. She is involved in cross-disciplinary musicology and literature projects.

Since his degree from the École Pratique des Hautes Études, Laurent Guillo has been working on 16th-18th century printed and manuscript musical sources from France, Switzerland and the former Netherlands. He has widened his research to include the history of libraries and collections of early music, biographies and the study of music publishing legal & material aspects (privileges, typography & transcribing materials, sheet music paper, copyists, stencilling, etc.). His research focuses on the history of book publishing, investigating its technical, intellectual and commercial aspects and their interaction. He has been working with the CMBV since September 2019 and is an associate member of the music research institute IReMus.

Thomas Leconte works as researcher and editorial manager in the CMBV Research Department (CESR, UMR 7323). His focus is on the historical and musical aspects of 17th century French salon music and early grands motets under Louis X1V (1643-1682). He has produced many publications on the subject. He also has a special interest in 17th and 18th century French provincial religious music and in the musical repertoires and practices of extraordinary ceremonies at the French court.

Solveig Serre, historian and musicologist, is a CNRS (CESR/CMBV) research fellow and lecturer at the École Polytechnique. She specialises in the history of opera houses under the Ancien Régime and the history of French folk music. With Luc Robène she directs the PIND research project (Punk is not dead. Une histoire de la scène punk en France, 1976-2016) financed by the ANR. Her publications include L’Opéra de Paris (1749-1791): politique culturelle sous l’Ancien Régime (Paris, CNRS Éditions, 2010).

Jean Duron’s work focuses on music under Louis XIV, notably its performance aspects (musicians, counterpoint, composition & theory), and on the major musical forms (grand motet, tragédie en musique), court music and cathedral music. His research has led to the publication of several essays on contemporary neo-Latin poetry.

With a PhD in History of Art, Mickaël Bouffard specialises in the history of gesture and bodily techniques. His current research topics include an iconography of baroque entertainments (costume, dance, theatre & opera). He assisted the curators with the Académie Royale de Musique exhibition at the Palais Garnier (summer 2019) and is currently co-curating an exhibition at the Louvre of costume designs from Francis I through Louis XIV. As deputy director to Georges Forestier, he runs the Molière Sorbonne drama school which teaches 17th century staging incorporating the latest research findings. In September 2018 an ambitious project to reproduce 1660’s tragedy theatre costumes was launched, with contribution from the Lycée La Source costume class and the École Duperré embroidery class.  Mickaël Bouffard is on the ThéPARis research seminar team.

Jana Franková has a PhD in Musicology from the Sorbonne (IReMus) and from Masaryk university in the Czech Republic. Her research focuses on the transfer and exchange of foreign influences in 18th century France in the field of music, and the circulation of French culture and repertoire within Central Europe. Since January 2018 she has been guest researcher at the Moravia Library (Moravská zemská knihovna) in Brno in the Czech Republic. As CMBV research fellow, she is running a research project with Barbara Nestola on musical exchanges between France and the lands of the Bohemian crown in the 17^th and 18^th centuries.

Christine Jeanneret, musicologist, has a PhD from Geneva university. Her research focuses on baroque opera, genre studies and cultural transfers. She is particularly interested in performance techniques, the role of the body on stage, acting skills and costumes, which involve academic and materials research and practical collaboration with performers. She is currently working at Frederiksborg National History Museum in Denmark and at the Palace of Versailles Research Centre, researching into the performing arts and French artists in Denmark (1660-1800). She is preparing a book on theatre practices in 17^th century Italian operas (Le corps éloquent : représenter les passions sur scène). In collaboration with the CMBV, in 2019 she started a workshop on the figure of Hercules in 17^th and 18^th century Italian and French operas as performed in France.

Silvia Manciati has a PhD in comparative literature & theatre studies (jointly administered by Poitiers and Roma Tor Vergata university, where she is currently working). Her research focuses on Goldoni’s relationship with actors, script and stage during his time in Paris (1762-1793) and involves a study of acting skills, the links between script and staging and the circulation of theatrical practices between Italy and France in the 18th century (focusing on the Comédie-Italienne and the Comédie-Française). As CMBV research fellow, she is conducting a case study for the ThéPARis research seminar on the crossover of acting and staging practices in the Comédie-Italienne and Comédie-Française as shown by Goldoni.

Jacques Szpirglas is a telecommunications engineer with a PhD in mathematics from Paris vi / Pierre & Marie Curie University (1982). In 2015 he obtained a PhD in musicology from the CESR (Renaissance research centre at François Rabelais de Tours university), with a thesis titled Prosopographie des musiciens des Saintes-Chapelles de Paris (148-1640) et de Bourges (1405-1640). His work highlights the lack of aggregate data on musicians under Henri iv, Louis xiii and the young Louis xiv. As CESR research fellow he is currently working with the CMBV on a biographical dictionary of musicians at the royal court under Henri iv (published by Classiques Garnier in 2019), another on musicians under Louis xiii, followed by one on musicians under the young Louis xiv until the end of Cardinal Mazarin’s government (1661).

With a PhD in musicology, Thomas Soury teaches history of music at several French universities (Rennes 2, Metz & Reims). He has also co-edited Rameau’s Opera omnia. He specialises in 18th century French opera,  particularly librettology, and has published articles by librettist Louis de Cahusac’s in Diderot’s Encyclopédie (ENCCRE critical essays). He has researched French operatic genres in France, and is preparing a CMBV publication drawn from the symposiums on Ballet in France held in May 2016 in Brussels (published by Classique Garnier). He has also provided the CMBV with scientific input for the production of Rameau’s Paladins (Oldenbourg, 2019) and has compiled a critical edition of the work.