Festival Lyrique de Paris at the Musée Jacquemart-André

Révélation Artiste Lyrique de l’Adami 2014, soprano Armelle Khourdoïan studied at the CNSMDP and CRR de Marseille before joining the Atelier Lyrique de l’Opéra de Paris. In 2016, she was engaged at La Scala Milan in Ravel’s L’Enfant et les Sortilèges and sang L’Amour and Clarine (Platée, Rameau) in Laurent Pelly and Marc Minkowski’s celebrated production at the Palais Garnier. She recorded the disc “Rameau chez Madame de Pompadour” with the ensemble Les Folies françoises. Armelle is a guest at numerous festivals, and France 3 viewers have seen her several times at the Chorégies d’Orange in “Musiques en fête”, presented by Alain Duault. In opera or concert, she sings at the Philharmonie de Paris, the Auditorium de Radio France with the NFB, the Théâtre du Châtelet, the Opéra de Lille, the Opéra-Comique… alongside Laurent Korcia, Emmanuelle Haïm, Michel Portal, Ruggero Raimondi and Charles Aznavour.

Trained as a harpsichordist and flautist, French-American soprano Emilie Rose Bry studied voice at the CRR de Paris and the Manhattan School of Music, before joining the CNIPAL in Marseille and the Studio de l’Opéra de Lyon in 2013. She has since appeared as soloist at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna, the Gran Teatre del Liceu and the Palau de la Musica (Barcelona), the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, the Moscow Philharmonic, the Opéra Royal de Versailles, the Opéras de Nice, Toulon, Vichy, with the Capitole de Toulouse and at the Folle Journée de Nantes. On stage, she has sung the roles of Armida (Rinaldo), Poppea (L’Incoronazione di Poppea), Tomiri (Talestri), Clarice (Il Mondo della Luna), La Comtesse (Les Petites Noces), Elvira (L’Italiana in Algeri), Micaëla (Carmen), Violetta (La Traviata), Agathe (Le Freischütz) and Janet (200 Motels). She has appeared in concert with Jean-François Zygel, Hervé Niquet, Josep Pons, the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Les Musiciens de Saint-Julien, Les London Mozart Players, Les Lunaisiens, l’Arcal and Jean-Christophe Spinosi and his Ensemble Matheus. She has just released her first CD, “Le Moine et le Voyou”, featuring the solo soprano in Bernard Cavanna’s Messe un jour ordinaire conducted by Léo Warynski.

Trained as a pianist, soprano Aurélie Loilier’s main passion is opera. After graduating with first-class honors in voice, she decided to devote herself fully to opera, and quickly launched her career. Her repertoire includes heroines by Mozart (Susanna, Donna Anna, Despina), Verdi (La Traviata), Puccini (Musetta, La Bohème), Donizetti (Adina, L’Elisir d’amore), Bizet (Micaëla and Frasquita, Carmen) and many other roles in the operetta repertoire (Offenbach, Benatzky, Planquette). In concert, Aurélie devotes herself to sacred music and melody. For the Maguelone label, she recently recorded a CD of previously unpublished pieces by Augusta Holmès, which was well received by the critics. She gives numerous recitals in France, the Middle East and Russia, as well as in China and South America. She lent her voice to the advertising campaign for Jean Paul Gaultier’s perfume “Le Mâle”, singing “Casta Diva” from Bellini’s Norma.

A fixture on international stages, she happily performs repertoires as diverse as they are varied. Her flamboyant temperament and the warmth of her voice make her an accomplished artist whom we never tire of admiring; with over ninety roles in her repertoire, performed on the greatest international opera stages such as La Scala in Milan, Vienna, the Paris Opera, Geneva, Hong Kong, Brussels, Berlin, Munich, Beijing, London, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, among others…

Deeply committed to the training of young singers, she is co-founder and artistic director of Lyrique en Provence. Sophie Pondjiclis is a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres

In 2023/2024, mezzo-soprano Séraphine Cotrez will reprise the role of Mercedes in Carmen during a European tour with René Jacobs. She also appears in the revival of Zémire et Azor at the Atelier lyrique de Tourcoing, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater with Les Paladins, and Mozart’s Mass in C with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Montpellier. A graduate of the CNSM in Lyon, she also studied in Berlin and Canada. She has sung such roles as the Kitchen Boy in Rusalka in Toulouse, Oenone in Hippolyte et Aricie, Fatimé in Zémire et Azor, and Mercedes at the Opéra du Rhin. She also sang Clorinda in Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda and Venus in Il ballo delle ingrate with Les Paladins. In concert, she has sung Mozart, Beethoven and Rachmaninov with orchestras such as those of Cannes and Massy.

Yu Shao graduated from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music in 2008. That same year, the tenor chose to move to France to continue his studies. In 2012, he joined the Chapelle Musicale Reine Elisabeth in Belgium to study with José van Dam. He won 4th prize in the 2014 Queen Elisabeth Competition and 3rd prize in the Concours de Toulouse. With the Académie de l’Opéra national de Paris, he sang the roles of Pylade(Iphigénie en Tauride) and Ferrando(Così fan tutte), before making a name for himself at the Opéra-Comique in the rediscovery of Camille Saint-Saëns’Timbre d’Argent. He has performed at the Opéra Bastille, Lille, Bordeaux, Rennes, Montpellier, Nantes and Angers, as well as on several European stages. Yu Shao’s repertoire extends to recitals and concerts, with notable performances including Mozart in Saint-Étienne and Bach in Strasbourg. In July 2023, he made his debut at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence in Donizetti’sLucie de Lammermoor.

With his powerful, warm voice adapted to the Italian repertoire, baritone Marc Souchet has already embodied numerous Verdian roles (Rigoletto, Germont, Il conte di Luna, Amonasro, Nabucco, Iago) and has also explored Puccini operas (Marcello, Scarpia and Ping in Zhang Yimou’s staging at the Stade de France). In the French repertoire, he easily tackles operas by Saint-Saëns, Bizet or Gounod (Samson et Dalila, Carmen, Mireille, Faust), as well as oratorios such as Massenet’s Eve, where his performance as Adam was immortalized on disc (recording released by Malibran). Marc Souchet is a regular guest of Opéra en plein air (Barbiere di Siviglia and Die Zauberflöte). In concert, where he has sung under the direction of Goeffrey Styles and Charles Dutoit, his repertoire extends to contemporary works by Chrystel Marchand, Eric Darrigrand and Minjung Woo.

A graduate of the CRD de Pantin and the Schola Cantorum, where he was taught by Nadine Denize, Benoît Gadel began his career with bass roles such as Colline (La Bohème, Puccini), Zuniga (Carmen, Bizet) and Ramfis (Aida, Verdi). His ease in the treble enabled him to gradually move into the baritone repertoire. He plays Escamillo in Carmen, Don Giovanni, Figaro (Le nozze di Figaro) and Guglielmo (Così fan tutte). With characters by Rossini, Verdi and Ravel, Benoît also illustrates himself in the Baroque repertoire of Purcell, Monteverdi and John Blow, and makes a few forays into operetta. In concert, he is regularly invited to perform sacred works by Bach and Mozart, as well as Charpentier, Fauré, Saint-Saëns, Dvo řák or Brahms. Recent stage roles include Giorgio Germont in Verdi’s La Traviata, Count Almaviva in Les Nozze di Figaro and a superb Don Giovanni by Mozart.

A lover of philosophy and literature, Yuko studied aesthetics at Tokyo University. She obtained a master’s degree in piano at Musashino Academia Musicae, where her meeting with Junji Mitsuishi led her to the profession of vocal conductor. Her passion for the French vocal repertoire brought her to Paris in 2016. With a Rotary Club scholarship, she studied with Irene Kudela and Sébastien Joly (Ecole Normale de Musique) and Françoise Tillard (CMA10). She is a laureate of the Fondation Royaumont (2019/20), and contributes to the creation and touring of shows in the Stein-lein-chen company (Rencontres: Prix du OFF Festival de Granville 2018; Youkali; tour with JM France). She takes part in numerous projects: ‘Un concert sous vos fenêtres’ (Vivre dans le feu), ‘Opéra Déconfiné’ (CALMS) among others. She accompanies numerous masterclasses, notably with Neil Shicoff, Karine Deshayes, Regina Werner and Carola Guber, as well as the Georges Enesco International Singing Competition (since 2022) and the Les Maîtres du Chant competition (2024). Her CD ‘Paul Delmet, L’âme amoureuse de la Belle Époque’ will be released in 2022.

Born in 1992, Katia Weimann began playing the piano at the age of 6, and quickly developed a passion for opera. Trained at the Conservatoire de Boulogne-Billancourt, she went on to perfect her skills with Anne Le Bozec and Emmanuel Olivier at the CNSM de Paris. She graduated with flying colors in 2020, and also won a prize for musical aesthetics. A laureate of the Fondation Royaumont, Katia went on to work with stage directors Benjamin Lazar, Patrice Caurier and Moshe Leiser on productions of operas by Gluck and Rossini. She regularly collaborates with young opera companies (Compagnie du JAB, Le Souffle d’Orphée…), for whom she is musical director of musical theater pieces and operas (Le Nozze di Figaro, Carmen and Menotti’s Maria Golovin). In addition, as pianist and vocal director of the Maîtrise Populaire de l’Opéra Comique, Katia took part in Laurent Pelly’s latest production at the Salle Favart.