“The playing of Agnès Marc is wonderfully unpretentious but never dry. She creates a sound world that lives, tells a story, and invites participation. Her tone invites and captivates us, allowing us to fall gently in the ineffable musicality of Johann Sebastian Bach.” (Süddeutsche Zeitung on Marc’s performance of Bach’s Partita, BWV 1013).
Like many children, Agnès Blanche Marc began playing recorder at the age of eight. She was captivated by its tone, and the instrument soon became her passion. After studying with Jean-Noel Catrice, Claire Michon, Sébastien Marq and Hugo Reyne, she went on to win the Gold Medal with distinction, earned the State Diploma for Early Music, and won the Paris Lucien Wurmser Competition. She also began to give concerts. By the age of 18, she had already taught at various Paris conservatories. On top of this, she also played viola in a string quartet, and through this met Sergiu Celibidache for the first time. Soon after, she moved to Munich in order to study conducting and the phenomenology of music with the great conductor. Completing her musical training were a period of viola study with Walter Daga in Verona and vocal studies with Birgit Nickl in Munich. This broad range of experience, coupled with her experience as a conductor, has influenced her recorder playing considerably. Composers such as Vladimir Genin, Graham Waterhouse, Chistoph Yunès have also taken note of Marc and have dedicated recorder works to her.
From 1995 to 2013 Marc taught recorder and chamber music at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich. Her three-volume recorder instruction series, entitled My Recorder and I, is published by Edition Delor. From 2012 to 2018 she served as vice president of the European Recorder Player Society (ERPS). In 2012 she planned, organized, and moderated “Celibidache – 100 Years, the Festival.”
Agnès Blanche Marc has been a docent at many seminars, webinars, masterclasses and training sessions for recorder, pedagogy, phenomenology, and chamber music in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, and France. She coaches professional musicians, ensembles, and students who are preparing for important appearances and international competitions. She gives concerts as a soloist and as a member of various orchestras both in Germany and France.
