, France) is a French conductor who studied at the Paris Conservatoire from 1947 to 1950, with Noël Gallon

Noël Gallon

Noël Gallon was a French composer and music educator. His compositional output includes several choral works and vocal art songs, 10 preludes, a Toccata for piano, a Sonata for flute and bassoon, a Fantasy for piano and orchestra, an Orchestral Suite, and the lyrical drama Paysans et Soldats...

, Georges Hugon

Georges Hugon

Georges Hugon was a French composer. He is the father of actress Sophie Daumier. His compositional output includes several chamber works, the ballet La Reine de Saba , two completed symphonies , and the unfinished symphony Prometheus.Born in Paris, he studied with Georges Caussade, Paul...

 and Eugene Bigot

Eugène Bigot

Eugène Bigot was a French composer and conductor. He also taught at the Conservatoire de Paris where his notable pupils included Émilien Allard, Louis de Froment, Henri-Claude Fantapié, António Fortunato de Figueiredo, Karel Husa, Paul Kuentz, Jean-Bernard Pommier, Pierre Rolland, and Mikis...

. He founded the Paul Kuentz Chamber Orchestra in 1951 and made many tours of Europe and the USA, performing the orchestral works of Bach

Bạch

Bạch is a Vietnamese surname. The name is transliterated as Bai in Chinese and Baek, in Korean.Bach is the anglicized variation of the surname Bạch.-Notable people with the surname Bạch:* Bạch Liêu...

 at the Church of Saint-Séverin

Saint-Séverin

Saint-Séverin is a commune in the Charente department in southwestern France.-Geography:The Lizonne forms the commune's eastern border, then flows into the Dronne, which forms the commune's southern border.-Population:-References:*...

 and at Carnegie Hall

Carnegie Hall

Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....

 in 1968. He frequently performs French music, including premieres of works by Pierre Max Dubois

Pierre Max Dubois

Pierre Max Dubois was a French composer of classical music. He was a student of Darius Milhaud, and though not widely popular, was respected. He brought the ideas of Les Six, of which his instructor was a member, into the middle 1900's. This group called for a fresh artistic perspective on music...

, Jacques Casterede

Jacques Castérède

Jacques Castérède is a French composer.He studied at Lycée Buffon in Paris. He gained his baccalaureat in elementary mathematics, before he entered Paris National Conservatory of Music in 1944 and began studying piano under Armand Ferté, composition under Tony Aubin, analysis under Olivier Messiaen...

 and Jacques Charpentier. In 1956 he married Monique Frasca-Colombier. In 1972 he founded the Paul Kuentz Chorus.

Over the years Kuentz befriended and performed with some of the leading musicians of the day, including cellist/conductor Mstislav Rostropovich

Mstislav Rostropovich

Mstislav Leopoldovich Rostropovich, KBE , known to close friends as Slava, was a Soviet and Russian cellist and conductor. He was married to the soprano Galina Vishnevskaya. He is widely considered to have been the greatest cellist of the second half of the 20th century, and one of the greatest of...

 and harpist Nicanor Zabaleta

Nicanor Zabaleta

Nicanor Zabaleta was a Spanish virtuoso and populariser of the harp.Zabaleta was born in San Sebastián, Spain, on January 7, 1907. In 1914 his father, an amateur musician, bought him a harp in an antique shop. He soon began taking lessons from Vincenta Tormo de Calvo and Luisa Menarguez...

, with whom he recorded a disc of Baroque harp concertos for Deutsche Grammophon in 1989. Among Kuentz's earlier recordings was his acclaimed two-CD set on Pierre Verany of the St. John Passion

St. John Passion

Several composers have written works known by the title St John Passion, which denotes a passion based on the Gospel of John...

 in 1987. Further successful Bach recordings followed, as well as a spate of others for various labels.

Kuentz often recorded with other orchestras, or in rare instances with his own as well as another ensemble. His acclaimed 1995 recording of Carl Orff

Carl Orff

Carl Orff was a 20th-century German composer, best known for his cantata Carmina Burana . In addition to his career as a composer, Orff developed an influential method of music education for children.-Early life:...

's Carmina Burana

Carmina Burana

Carmina Burana , Latin for "Songs from Beuern" , is the name given to a manuscript of 254 poems and dramatic texts mostly from the 11th or 12th century, although some are from the 13th century. The pieces were written principally in Medieval Latin; a few in Middle High German, and some with traces...

, for instance, employed both his own ensemble and the Orchestre des Concerts du Conservatoire. Kuentz's recent releases are reissues of older recordings and include the 2006 Deutsche Grammophon CD A Baroque Guitar Weekend.

Recordings include: J.S. Bach's Orchestral Suites, Mass in B Minor (BWV 232) and Musikalisches Opfer; Antonio Vivaldi

Antonio Vivaldi

Antonio Lucio Vivaldi , nicknamed because of his red hair, was an Italian Baroque composer, priest, and virtuoso violinist, born in Venice. Vivaldi is recognized as one of the greatest Baroque composers, and his influence during his lifetime was widespread over Europe...

's Four Seasons

The Four Seasons (Vivaldi)

The Four Seasons is a set of four violin concertos by Antonio Vivaldi. Composed in 1723, The Four Seasons is Vivaldi's best-known work, and is among the most popular pieces of Baroque music. The texture of each concerto is varied, each resembling its respective season...

, and other concertos; Flute concertos by Haydn, Blavet

Blavet

The Blavet river flows from central Brittany and enters the Atlantic Ocean on the south coast near Lorient. The river is canalized for most of its length and is navigable for smaller craft. It is part of Brittany's canal system and became more important when the western half of that system got cut...

, Mozart, Leclair

Leclair

LeClair, LeClaire or Leclair is a French or Francophone surname which can refer to:* Antoine LeClaire , U.S. Army interpreter, founded Davenport, Iowa* Day Leclaire, an American author....

 and Giovanni Battista Pergolesi

Giovanni Battista Pergolesi

Giovanni Battista Pergolesi was an Italian composer, violinist and organist.-Biography:Born at Iesi, Pergolesi studied music there under a local musician, Francesco Santini, before going to Naples in 1725, where he studied under Gaetano Greco and Francesco Feo among others...

; Music by Michel-Richard Delalande, Jean-Joseph Mouret

Jean-Joseph Mouret

Jean-Joseph Mouret was a French composer whose dramatic works made him one of the leading exponents of Baroque music in his country...

, Gabrieli

Gabrieli

Gabrieli as a surname can refer to:* Andrea Gabrieli , Italian composer and organist at San Marco di Venezia* Giovanni Gabrieli , composer and organist at San Marco di Venezia...

 and Gluck; Mozart's Concerto K 299, Requiem

Requiem

A Requiem or Requiem Mass, also known as Mass for the dead or Mass of the dead , is a Mass celebrated for the repose of the soul or souls of one or more deceased persons, using a particular form of the Roman Missal...

, Bastien und Bastienne

Bastien und Bastienne

Bastien und Bastienne , K. 50 is a one-act singspiel, a comic opera, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart....

 and Church Sonatas; Harp concertos by Georg Frideric Handel, Johann Georg Albrechtsberger

Johann Georg Albrechtsberger

Johann Georg Albrechtsberger was an Austrian musician who was born at Klosterneuburg, near Vienna.He originally studied music at Melk Abbey and philosophy at a Benedictine seminary in Vienna and became one of the most learned and skillful contrapuntists of his age...

, Boieldieu, Wagenseil

Wagenseil

Wagenseil is a surname that may refer to: , German writer* Georg Christoph Wagenseil , 18th-century Austrian composer...

 and Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf

Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf

----August Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf was an Austrian composer, violinist and silvologist.-1739-1764:...

; Josef Haydn's Symphonies Nos. 85 and 101 (EMI); Other labels include Decca

Decca Records

Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....

 and Deutsche Grammophon

Deutsche Grammophon

Deutsche Grammophon is a German classical record label which was the foundation of the future corporation to be known as PolyGram. It is now part of Universal Music Group since its acquisition and absorption of PolyGram in 1999, and it is also UMG's oldest active label...

.

Recordings

• Nicanor Zabaleta
  Nicanor Zabaleta
  Nicanor Zabaleta was a Spanish virtuoso and populariser of the harp.Zabaleta was born in San Sebastián, Spain, on January 7, 1907. In 1914 his father, an amateur musician, bought him a harp in an antique shop. He soon began taking lessons from Vincenta Tormo de Calvo and Luisa Menarguez...
  
  , Harfe (Harp). Ravel, Debussy, Handel
  HANDEL
  HANDEL was the code-name for the UK's National Attack Warning System in the Cold War. It consisted of a small console consisting of two microphones, lights and gauges. The reason behind this was to provide a back-up if anything failed....
  
  , Albrechtsberger. Paul Kuentz Chamber Orchestra. DGG LP139 304. 1967.
• In June 1990, he performed the Requiem and the Krönungsmesse at the Saint-Etienne du Mont church, in Paris, which was recorded in video.