Acting

Philippe Pierlot

Philippe Pierlot (born 1958) is a Belgian viola da gamba player and a conductor in historically informed performance. He is also an academic teacher at the royal conservatories of The Hague and Brussels. Born in Liège, Pierlot learned to play the recorder, the guitar and the lute at the age of twelve. He studied playing the viola da gamba with Wieland Kuijken. In 1980, he founded the ensemble Ricercar Consort, with the violinist François Fernandez and the keyboard player Bernard Foccroulle, focusing on the performance and recording of little-known music in historically informed performance. Several contemporary compositions were dedicated to him. He also plays the baryton, for which Joseph Haydn composed around 150 works. In 1999, he revived Marais's opera Sémélé, which had not been performed for 300 years, after composing some missing parts.