Created in 1986 by the recorder player Jean-Marc Andrieu, the orchestra is in residence in the south-west French town of Montauban.
Its vocation is to convince the public that ancient music is as relevant to the present as are the writings of Molière, the paintings of La Tour or the architecture of Mansart.
Its repertoire extends from the beginning of the 17th century (Monteverdi’s Vêpres à la Vierge) to the end of the 18th century (Mozart’s Requiem) encompassing a large number of the masters of the Baroque era (Bach, Handel, Telemann, Scarlatti, Vivaldi, Purcell, Charpentier...).
The orchestra is also dedicated to rediscovering the legacy of French music by producing the opera Stratonice by Méhul, Daphnis et Alcimadure by Mondonville, and works by Toulouse composers Dupuy, Levens, and Jean Gilles.
Formerly the Baroque Orchestra of Montauban, at the end of 2003 Jean-Marc Andrieu renamed the orchestra Les Passions in reference to a musical form and to the philosophical and literary subject very much discussed in the 17th and 18th centuries that influenced lyrical composers during the Baroque and Classical periods.