Les Orchestres du Plateau de Saclay
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The Orchestres du Plateau de Saclay (OPS) were created in 2012 when students from the university and Grandes Écoles (engineering schools) of the Plateau de Saclay came together, driven by their shared passion for music, and decided to pool their respective resources to form a symphonic orchestra worthy of that name. Indeed, each school alone could not bring together enough musicians to form a real symphonic orchestra. The aim of this association is therefore to bring together student musicians from the universities of the Plateau de Saclay.
The Symphonic Orchestra of Plateau de Saclay was founded in September 2012. At the time, it consisted of around forty musicians. Today, almost 12 years later, it has more than seventy members from various schools and university of the Plateau de Saclay and the surrounding area: Polytechnique, Université Paris-Saclay, CEA, ENSTA, ENSAE, SupOptique, Télécom Paris, Agro ParisTech, CentraleSupélec, HEC Paris, ENS Paris-Saclay, Polytech Paris-Saclay, etc.
The symphonic orchestra presents three programs per year, each giving rise to 2 or 3 concerts. For example, the program for the April-June 2023 session was dedicated to opera overtures, while that of the September-December 2023 session featured Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition".
In addition to the symphonic orchestra, a wind band was created in 2015. It enables wind instrumentalists, too numerous in the original symphonic orchestra, to play in an ensemble. It now has over sixty musicians and presents a variety of music ranging from film scores, such as Joe Hisaishi's "Totoro", to wind band classics, like Rossano Galante's "Cry of the Last Unicorn". Finally, an OPS Choir was launched in September of 2022 in order to carry out joint projects with the two orchestras. It brings together around thirty chorists singing mainly traditional polyphonic music, their current program being Haydn's Nelson Mass.
At the same time, various smaller ensembles have sprung up over the years, encouraging musical diversity and encounters between musicians from all schools of the Plateau de Saclay.
Marion André
Marion André is a conductor, organist, pianist and violinist. She studied at renowned musical institutions (the Royal Academy of Music in London, the Sorbonne IV in Paris, the Conservatoire Royal de Bruxelles and the Ecole Normale de Paris) and holds a master's degree in piano, organ and musicology, as well as a postgraduate diploma in orchestral conducting.
In 2022, she founded the Ensemble Plein Jeu, where instrumentalists swap roles, moving from orchestral musician to soloist, from soloist to orchestral instrumentalist, in a mainly concertante repertoire.
Assistant conductor of the Opéra de Massy orchestra for the 21/22 season, she also works with the Ensemble Les Apaches, the Orchestre de Lutetia and the Orchestre Les Métamorphoses. In December 2023, Marion André was appointed Musical Director of the Plateau de Saclay Symphony Orchestra, for 2 years. It is an honour to be able to count on her within the OPS.
Le Plateau de Saclay
The Saclay plateau is located around twenty kilometres south of Paris. Located at the entrance to the Vallée de Chevreuse, it has been home to a world-class science and technology cluster since 2010. The Paris-Saclay project brings together research bodies (ENS Paris-Saclay, INRA research unit), Grandes écoles (Polytechnique, CentraleSupelec, AgroParisTech, etc.), universities and private companies such as IBM, Airbus Group and Safran. There are 10,500 teacher-researchers, 60,000 students from all over France, including 25,000 Masters students and 5,700 PhD students. Still under development, the Plateau de Saclay is intended to provide the Paris region and France with an area hosting activities at the cutting edge of innovation and research.