About Les Délices

Les Délices (pronounced Lay day-lease)fascinates and inspires audiences by exploring music of the past in ways that spark creativity and empower people of all ages to think differently about music and culture.

With deep roots in our Northeast Ohio community,  Les Délices is building a national reputation as a leader in the field of early music, advancing its relevance and sustainability by welcoming collaboration, embracing digital media, and emphasizing accessibility and relatability in programming.

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 seven 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). Critics have lauded the ensemble’s latest CD, The Poet & the Prodigy, as “marvelous,” “superb,” and “outstandingly beautiful” (American Record Guide).

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, Nathan Mondry, and Sydney Guillaume on tour and they launched “The Mythology Project,” a multi-year commissioning project exploring myth and its impact on our lives. In 2027, the ensemble will present “Kiss and Tell”, a new myth-inspired cantata by Black American composer Damien Geter. An album featuring recordings of all three Mythology Project commissions (Geter’s Kiss and Tell, Soy la Diosa by Gilda Lyons, and A Moment’s Oblivion by Viet Cuong) is forthcoming. 

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 7th Season, they have produced over 50 SalonEra episodes and created feature opportunities for over 90 artists while earning support and recognition from the National Endowment for the Arts (2023) and Early Music America (2022 Laurette Goldberg Award).