Soundtrack from Miramax Films’ The Chorus (Les Choristes) available on January 4, 2005

Nonesuch Records releases the soundtrack for Miramax Films’ The Chorus (Les Choristes) on January 4, 2005. The film prominently features original choral music by composer Bruno Coulais (Winged Migration, Microcosmos, Harrison’s Flowers), performed by Lyon’s Petits Chanteurs de Saint Marc, and introduces thirteen-year-old actor/vocal soloist Jean-Baptiste Maunier.

The year’s smash box-office hit in France, The Chorus (Les Choristes) takes place in 1949 post-War France. In an end-of-the-line school for troubled boys, a mild-mannered new teacher, Clement Mathieu (Gérard Jugnot), arrives and finds himself surrounded by prepubescent thieves, liars, and rebels. When Mathieu introduces these delinquents to the pleasure of music, he discovers there is far more to these children than anyone believed. The Chorus marks the feature film debut of writer/director Christophe Barratier.

The Chorus (Les Choristes) is the French entry for Best Foreign Film for the 2004 Academy Awards, and will be screened at film festivals throughout the U.S.; it will open in theaters on January 14, 2005. The Chorus (Les Choristes): Music from the Motion Picture, which will be released on January 4, 2005, comprises entirely original music composed by Coulais, with two songs by writer/director Christopher Barratier, who also has a musical background.

Coulais’ score, which Agence France Presse calls “cherubic,” was a surprise best seller in France, reaching number one on the album charts. In composing the simple music, Coulais worked closely with the boys of the Petits Chanteurs choir, its conductor Nicholas Porte, and Maunier, the soloist who Variety calls “a real find.” The film and soundtrack have made Maunier a star in France and have sparked an unprecedented revival of interest in youth choirs. The soundtrack has sold more than one million copies in France alone.

Miramax Films, founded by Bob and Harvey Weinstein in 1979, has released some of the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful independent feature films, including fourteen Best Picture nominations over a span of the past twelve years: Chicago, Gangs of New York, The Hours, In the Bedroom, Chocolat, The Cider House Rules, Shakespeare In Love, Life Is Beautiful (La Vita É Bella), Good Will Hunting, The English Patient, Il Postino (The Postman), and The Piano. Miramax has received 23 Best Foreign Language Film nominations over the past sixteen years.