ACTivities
Singing
I could never choose between singing and make people sing. Exchange and transmission are fundamental in my work. Being deprived of contact with the public, fellow musicians or students makes me very sad.
From time to time, I perform as a mezzo-soprano in a classical vocal quartet, but my main solo activity is focused on French chanson, jazz and bossa nova.
Almost all my concert programs include songs by Gaël Liardon, a Swiss composer and songwriter who wrote little gems on great...
Choir conducting
There is something even more magical than one voice: polyphony. The fusion of different timbres creating a new timbre, purer and richer, the vibrations produced by the combination of frequencies, the singers' pulses synchronising to the beat are indescribable feelings... To be surrounded by the voices of the singers is a blessing.
Children's choirs, young adults, semi-professional ensembles, classical or gospel church choirs… My singers are between 7 and 77 years old, or even older, and invest a lot in their passion, which makes them feel good and young. This requires...
My singers learn to find their way to their voice, to use it like a precious and priceless instrument, with its different registers, its virtuosity and its expressive power, but also to accept its personality and to take care of it.
For the past 10 years I have been teaching a pop/jazz singing class at Music School Uster Greifensee and private students. Even in non classical genres, the exploration of resonators, head voice and breath support are here to protect the delicate vocal apparatus.
The source of the voice – and of life – is breathing. That’s why...
Arranging
Among the theoretical subjects that I preferred during my Conservatory years were orchestration and counterpoint. After having analysed brilliant orchestrators like Brahms, Mahler or Ravel, we students modestly tried to adapt a work for piano according to different aesthetics. As a result, we had the privilege of hearing our version played by the orchestra.
Nowadays I often have the opportunity to arrange music for various ensembles. After having worked for many years with my choirs, it's extremely pleasant to write precisely for their type of voice, with or without instruments...
Writing
Before the decisive encounter with my master Michel Corboz that made me realise that choir conducting was made for me, I was studying the flute, musicology and Chinese. I dreamed of discovering old manuscripts sleeping in sacristies or attics of opera houses, and then editing this forgotten music to make it accessible to a wide audience.
Documentation and repertoire knowledge representing an important part of an interpreter's work, I've never ceased to study and share my thoughts and discoveries in concert programs, CD booklets or articles...