Created by the harpsichordist Iakovos Pappas in 1992, Almasis changed to Almazis in 2004. It quickly became one of the best ensembles of French music from the XVIIe and XVIIIe century, because of its innovating and revolutionary methods to interpret baroque music. Indeed, Almazis members are trained according to authentic techniques; notably pronunciation, declamation, prosody and body movements which contribute to the famous sound Almazis. For 15 years now, the Ensemble Almazis has never stopped promoting French inheritance by dedicating some concerts and records. It boasts to be the precursor of unrecognized chefs-d’oeuvre like Les Petits Motets by Nicolas Bernier, Les Grands Motets by Esprit Joseph Antoine Blanchard, cantatas of Nicolas Racot de Granval, Les Fables de Jean de La Fontaine transcribed in music by Nicolas Clérambault, etc

.In its opera work we can notice significant productions such as L’Isle des Foux by Egidio Duni, Zémir et Azor by André Ernest Modeste Gréty or Le Maréchal Ferrant by André Danican Philidor. Since the success of Zémir et Azor, Almazis has become the “only ones to convincingly show the XVIIIe century’s French comic theatre”.

The Ensemble Almazis is the only ensemble that commemorated, in 1999, the 300^th anniversary of Jean Racine’s death by recording Cantiques Spirituelles with Jean-Noel Marchand or commemorated, in 2005, the 300^th anniversary of Joseph Nicolas Pancrace Royer’s birth.

Almazis’s records have always been a significant event regarding interpretation and have received distinctions reserved to the best productions. Les Libertines baroques based on erotic music and texts of the XVIIIe century, is probably the project that has marked baroque music the most for 20 years by its musical quality as much as on the vision of the art at this period. Since 2000, Almazis is the ambassador of French baroque music in Greece, notably because it was the first to show Les Petits Motets by Nicolas Bernier, Les Pièces en Concert by Jean Philippe Rameau and also Les Léçons de Ténèbres by François Couperin
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“It is probably the most unrestrained French baroque music recording ever” said The International Record Review about the disc “Courbois d’Almazis”. This sentence resumed the approach resolutely full of life that the ensemble offers. The Ensemble Almazis has been located at “La Péniche Opéra” since 2005.