Hervé (“Air-vey”) Blanquart co-founded UP CLOSE AND CLASSICAL with Alicja, cellist and usually emcees the concerts. Hervé is a singer, and occasionally a choir director. His initial training was between age 9 and 12, with the Paris’ Boys Choir, as soprano soloist, and on his last tour with the choir in 1978, came to the US for the first time. He then graduated in France in business, not music, but returned to singing after moving to California where he memorized and sung over 20 operas, either as a chorister of the Los Angeles Opera and Opera San Diego, or as a principal artist in smaller opera companies. He also explored the choral repertoire with Pacific Chorale and Camerata of Los Angeles. He then re-acquainted himself with Gregorian Chant first learned in the boyschoir. In the process, encountered the work of Guido d’Arezzo, the 11th century monk who invented solfege and staff notation. Guido thought singers were fools for spending so much time memorizing 🤔. Hervé has since shared his non-singing music time between promoting chamber music and elementary music literacy for singers. He also cantor Catholic masses at Mary Star of the Sea in San Pedro (Sundays 12:00PM) and Saint Matthew in Long Beach (7:00AM). His chant website is https://longbeachchant.com/ .