Soprano Corinne Orde is half Belgian but has lived all her life in England, performing mainly in oratorio and church music. She received her vocal training from Ana-Raquel Satre and appeared in concert halls around the UK and abroad as a soloist and in small vocal ensembles. During the 1980s and 1990s she ran the Baroque Consort of Singers, giving concerts that included many out of print works culled from libraries, which had not been performed for centuries. When the Internet was still in its infancy and mobile phones not yet widespread, she created DepList, a computer-based booking resource and networking website for concert and church singers and organists. In due course it extended seamlessly to smartphones, which much enhanced its usefulness. She ran DepList, which remained the only resource of its kind, for twenty years until 2020 when the corona virus (Covid-19) pandemic provided a convenient excuse to cease operations.
For her two albums of French mélodies, recorded in 2005–2007, she teamed up with Jonathan Cohen, pianist, composer, arranger, conductor and television presenter, who has worked in all genres of music-making. Every Christmas he presents Christmas Carol Singalong concerts at the Albert Hall in London and in the provinces.
Together they explored the French song repertoire of the late 19th and early 20th centuries and recorded 90 songs in two double albums .
Bonne Chanson, Belle Epoque, contains settings by Fauré and Debussy of symbolist poets with Belgian connections (Paul Verlaine, Charles Baudelaire and Charles Van Lerberghe).
Louis Vierne: Mélodies explores undeservedly neglected repertoire and is complemented by Maurice Ravel’s Histoires naturelles. Both albums are available on Amazon, CD Baby and online music services.
On this site you will find the texts of all the songs as well as some illustrated recordings. Corinne also enjoys playing the piano and has recorded some other songs as illustrated videos, more of which feature on her YouTube channel.
Corinne lives in Kent, where she runs a B&B.