Robin Massee, La Médaille d’Or de Solidarité et Valeur

Robin Massee, an American who grew up in France, has made significant contributions to French-American relations in her various roles in New York, including: Vice President of External Affairs at the French Institute-Alliance Française, Director of Communications for French Tourism and Director of Public Relations for the French Cultural Services.

She has coordinated the official visits of two French Ministers of Culture (Jack Lang and François Léotard). She oversaw France Salutes New York, a ten-day performing arts festival at Lincoln Center, and acted as liaison for Liberty Weekend, the Statue of Liberty centennial celebration. She has been responsible for the largest Bastille Day festival in Manhattan, attracting over 15,000 New Yorkers every year.

Ms. Massee has provided leadership in the areas of tourism and French-American relations. In the exceptional spring of 2003, Ms. Massee was instrumental in creating the “Let’s Fall in Love Again” campaign and a video featuring Woody Allen, Wynton Marsalis, George Plimpton, and others, to restore American travel to France. In 2004, she created “Operation Open Arms” to commemorate the 60th anniversary of D-Day with testimonials from American veterans who landed on June 6, 1944 and from Norman French eyewitnesses.

Since founding Massee Productions, a communications and film production company, Ms. Massee’s commitment to both cultures has been at the core of her work. She directed A Hero’s Welcome–A Story of Friendship, Gratitude and Remembrance, showcasing the impact of D-Day on the French- American relationship.

She is currently producing Angels in our Midst: WWII Women Veterans in France to capture the voices of the American women, mainly nurses, who were in France during the war. She is also developing a television series for the U.S. market, French Encounters: On the Road with Robin Massee & Friends, about the gastronomic and art-de-vivre pleasures of France.

In 2005, the French Government named Ms. Massee Chevalier dans l’Ordre National du Mérite. Her life’s work, which has bridged these two cultures, embodies the best of both.

Ryan Brown, La Médaille d’Or du Rayonnement Culturel

Ryan Brown is the founder, conductor, and artistic director of Opera Lafayette, an early-music opera company established in 1995 and based in Washington, D.C. Through his work with Opera Lafayette, Mr. Brown has become a leading figure in the revival of 18th-century opera. His vivid explorations of the French repertoire in particular have earned him an international reputation, receiving the highest praise from critics in the United States and abroad.

Following a tour to New York City, Opera Lafayette made its debut at the Opéra Royal in Versailles in February 2012, performing Pierre- Alexandre Monsigny’s Le Roi et le fermier. They included the same sets utilized for a performance of the same opera by Marie Antoinette at Versailles in 1780. Opera Lafayette’s performances have highlighted the various traditions of the tragédie lyrique, the opéra-ballet, the opéra-comique, the pastorale, and the dramma-giocoso genres.

Mr. Brown’s discography for Naxos includes masterpieces by well-known 18th-century composers as well as discoveries of their contemporaries (Gluck’s Orphée et Euridice and Sacchini’s Œdipe à Colone, Rameau Operatic Arias, and Rebel and Francœur’s Zélindor, roi des Sylphes), works which exemplify traditions in the 17th century (Lully’s Armide), and those which point the way toward the music of the 19th century (Monsigny’s Le Déserteur).

Mr. Brown was raised in a musical family in California, and performed extensively as a violinist and chamber musician in New York and on tour before turning his attention to conducting. In 2012 he will make his debut with the Seattle Symphony.