Louis-Jacques Rondeleux

After studying eclectic topics (mathematics, history, philosophy and theology), Rondeleux began his career in the Catholic clergy.

He entered the Major Seminary of Paris (1941–1944) and after a short period of service in the army (December 1944–August 1945) he began a novitiate with the Dominican friars.

In the late forties Louis-Jacques Rondeleux was a pupil of Jane Bathori, mezzo-soprano, creator of most of Maurice Ravel's melodies.

In October 1951, he sang for the first time as a soloist under the direction of André Cluytens during a concert in Paris at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées (Duruflé's Requiem Op.9, Florent Schmitt's Psaume XLVII).

In 1954 he took part - still as a chorister - in two musical-theatrical creations of the compagnie Renaud-Barrault: On 30 July 1954 at Aix-en-Provence, he was soloist at the time of the premiere of Sauguet's Les Caprices de Marianne opera.

[6] In 1963 he collaborated, under the direction of Pierre Boulez, on the homage album to Igor Stravinsky (concerning the whole of the discography see the notice on the BNF website).

In January 1965, Henry Barraud entrusted him with the creation of his motet Pange Lingua[9] (a tribute to Rameau), a cantata for soprano, baritone, choir and orchestra.

In 1970, he joined Maurice Béjart in Brussels for the premiere of the École Mudra [fr], a new multidisciplinary training centre for dancers, where he will be responsible for vocal technique.

In 1974, Jacques Rosner [fr] - who has just been appointed to the management of the Conservatoire national supérieur d’art dramatique de Paris - asked him to teach singing to future actors.

[10] In 1977, in an effort to pass on the fruits of his experience to as many people as possible, he published a book entitled Trouver sa voix at éditions du Seuil.

Alongside his friend Georges Suffert [fr] he helped create a magazine, les Mal Pensants[13] which wanted to be a place of expression for "left-wing" Catholics; he wrote - in the first issue - the editorial under the title "Who are we?".