Andrea
Bandini
Professor of Trombone
Andrea Bandini began his music studies in 1973 at the Music School of Siena in Italy and obtained his trombone diploma in 1980 at the Luigi Cherubini Conservatory of Music in Florence. In 1978 he joined the Italian Youth Orchestra under the direction of Franco Ferrara.
In 1981, he decided to perfect his skills at the Geneva Conservatory of Music in the class of Roland Schnorhk, where he obtained the 1st prize for virtuosity with distinction in 1985. The same year, he won the 1st prize at the Riddes Competition, the 3rd prize at the Markneuenkirchen Competition and the following year the bronze medal at the Bordeaux International Festival of Young Soloists.
Since 1986, Andrea Bandini has been a member of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and has been appointed solo trombone until 2011. From 1984 to 2008 he was a member of the contemporary music ensemble, Contrechamps, an ensemble with which he was fortunate enough to rub shoulders with the greatest contemporary music composers of the 20th and 21st centuries. Invited as a jury member in the most important international trombone competitions, Andrea Bandini has been teaching at the Haute école de musique de Genève since 1999. Andrea Bandini is also regularly invited to participate in masterclasses and brass festivals throughout the world. He is also a consultant for the " Free-flow Valve " system for trombone, invented by Rene Hagmann, owner of the " Servette-Musique " shop in Geneva.
Andrea Bandini bought his first slide trombone and his first classical music record in Florence in 1976. It was a recording of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande by Ernest Ansermet. After having listened to it many times, Andrea Bandini announced to his father that he would one day perform with this orchestra.... 10 years later, he joins the OSR.
Learn more about Andrea Bandini
Quatuor Belcea
Quatuor en résidence
Composé de Corina Belcea (violon), Suyeon Kang (violon), Krzysztof Chorzelski (alto) et Antoine Lederlin (violoncelle), le Quatuor Belcea bénéficie d’une solide réputation sur la scène musicale internationale et affiche déjà une discographie impressionnante. L’éventail de son répertoire embrasse toute la musique écrite pour quatuor de Haydn, Mozart, et Beethoven, jusqu’à Bartok, Janacek, Britten et Szymanowski. En outre, il présente régulièrement au public des œuvres de compositeurs actuels.
La présence du Quatuor Belcea au sein de la HEM représente une opportunité unique pour les étudiant-e-s de bénéficier d’une formation pratique et théorique complète dispensé par un ensemble expérimenté connaissant parfaitement toutes les facettes du métier de musicien-ne. Nul doute que le professionnalisme, la curiosité et l’éclectisme du Quatuor Belcea seront des sources d’inspiration pour nos étudiant-e-s tant dans le répertoire classique que contemporain.
Site internet du Quatuor Belcea
Maria Christina
Cleary
Professor of Historical Harps - Basso Continuo on the Instrument (for Harpists)
Originally from Ireland and its harp musical traditions, Maria Christina Cleary is internationally recognized as a virtuoso with an exceptionally sensitive and beautiful touch. She is one of the few specialists in medieval harp, promoting innovative techniques, particularly pedal techniques used exclusively on single-action harps. These techniques have enabled her to develop a new approach to interpreting medieval and Renaissance works. She studied in Dublin, London, The Hague, and Brussels with Susanna Mildonian, as well as at Leiden University in the Netherlands. She has won numerous awards, including the Utrecht Early Music Competition, the Nippon International Harp Competition, and the Dutch National Harp Competition.
Maria Christina Cleary regularly records CDs such as "So mach’ die Augen zu," the first CD of Louis Spohr with original instruments and musical techniques of the time. She produced another CD, "Le Grazie del Violino," with her duo Arparla, featuring works by 17th-century Italian composers such as Frescobaldi, Merula, Uccellini, and Rossi, where she exclusively uses the harp as an accompaniment or solo instrument.
She teaches medieval harp, improvisation, and chamber music with both ancient and modern harps. After teaching at the Guildhall School of Music in London, the conservatories in Singapore, Brisbane, Venice, Padova, the Krakow Academy of Music, the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, and the Haute école de musique de Genève, she joined the renowned Urbino Summer Music team in 2016. Maria Christina Cleary regularly gives masterclasses, notably at the Juilliard School of Music in New York.
Learn more about Maria Christina Cleary.
Guido
Balestracci
Professor of Viola da Gamba - Ornamentation
Guido Balestracci was born in Turin in 1971. He discovered the viola da gamba at the age of five within his family environment. After completing his studies at the Schola Cantorum in Basel, he began a faithful collaboration with musical personalities such as Paolo Pandolfo and Jordi Savall, performing alongside them and contributing to numerous recordings.
In 1997, he founded the ensemble L’Amoroso to explore the viola da gamba repertoire more personally and to highlight the different instruments of this family. The recording programs "Consonanze Stravaganti," followed by "Seconde Stravaganze" and the transcription of Corelli's Opus V for viola da gamba, are considered pioneering works in the revival of the Italian repertoire for viols and have been awarded by international critics (Diapason d’or, 10 de Répertoire, Prix Goldberg, Premio Vivaldi della Fondazione Cini, Eccezionale de Scherzo, Choc du Monde de la Musique...).
Passionate about research, Guido Balestracci is interested in rare instruments, such as the baryton, as evidenced by a CD dedicated to Haydn's trio Divertimenti, released in 2011.
His interest in the Classical and Romantic periods, particularly for the arpeggione, of which he is one of the few current performers, also falls within this domain. He performs in concerts featuring a program dedicated to the transcription of the Romantic repertoire around Schubert's "Arpeggione" Sonata, which he recorded in 2019.
Since the end of 2021, Guido Balestracci has also been responsible for the research project "Le Vibrato entre 1770 et 1820: un agrément à redécouvrir," which he conducts at the HEM of Geneva in collaboration with Elizabeth Dobbin and Paolo Corsi and in partnership with the CRR of Paris.
He holds the position of professor of viola da gamba and 18th-century ornamentation at the HEM of Geneva and at the CRR of Paris in collaboration with PSPBB and Sorbonne University.
Learn more about Guido Balestracci
Katharina
Rosenberger
Professor of composition
The works of composer Katharina Rosenberger take listeners to unknown places. Born in Zurich in 1971, the artist takes an interdisciplinary approach and uses unusual combinations. Her works draw on artistic fields and media such as video, visual arts and theatre. Her sound art and sound sculptures challenge our listening habits and draw attention to the way we perceive music and works of art.
Katharina Rosenberger studied at the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston, the Royal Academy of Music in London and Columbia University in New York. Since 2018, she has been a professor at the University of California, San Diego, where she previously taught composition and sound art. In 2021, she was appointed professor of composition in Lübeck. In 2019, Katharina Rosenberger received the prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship.
Katharina Rosenberger's works have received numerous awards; her project ‘VIVA VOCE’ was supported by the Federal Office of Culture and her album ‘TEXTUREN’, performed by the New York ensemble Wet Ink, received the prestigious Copland Recording Grant and the Deutsche Schallplattenkritik prize. Katharina Rosenberger's works can be discovered at international festivals. Attending a live performance is an experience that leaves a lasting impression on the senses.
François
Desforges
Professeur of Percussion
François Desforges began studying percussion with Daniel Ardaillon in Montluçon and continued his education with Didier Benetti and Frédéric Macarez in Paris. Concurrently, he studied Latin percussion with Miguel Fiannaca.
In 1992, François Desforges was admitted to the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris in the class of Jacques Delecluse and Jean Geoffroy. He graduated in 1995 with a unanimous First Prize. That same year, he joined the Orchestre National de France and obtained the Certificate of Aptitude for teaching percussion.
In 1998, he also received a First Prize in chamber music at the CNSM de Paris in the class of Jacques Ivaldi and Michel Cals.
Within the Orchestre National de France, he holds the position of Solo Timpanist. With this renowned ensemble, he has participated in numerous projects and international tours under the baton of prestigious conductors such as Charles Dutoit, Riccardo Muti, Seiji Osawa, Kurt Masur, Daniele Gatti, Bernard Haitink, and Cristian Macelaru, the current music director.
Beyond his orchestral activities, François Desforges is passionate about pedagogy. After many years of teaching at the conservatory of the 5th arrondissement of Paris and at the CRD of Créteil, he joined the prestigious Haute école de musique de Genève in 2016 to teach timpani. This esteemed institution allows him to share his passion with students from around the world. He is regularly invited to give masterclasses on orchestral timpani.
As a chamber musician, François Desforges is a member of the ensemble Ad ONF, comprised of percussionists from the Orchestre National de France. This variable-geometry ensemble was created in 2004 around the project "Ballet Mécanique" by Georges Antheil, initiated by René Bosc, then director of musical creation at Radio-France. Since its creation, Ad ONF has been a regular guest at numerous festivals such as the Présences Festival at Radio-France, La Roque d’Anthéron, Les Folles Journées de Nantes, and the Bel Air Festival in Chambéry. Many artists have collaborated with Ad ONF, including Marielle and Katia Labèque, Bertrand Chamayou, Jean Frédéric Neuburger, Magali Mosnier, Markus Lindberg, Thierry Escaich, and Thomas Adès.
François Desforges also performs with various other partners such as the "inclassifiable" group Quai n°5, the Accentus Chamber Choir directed by Laurence Equilbey, the Sequenza 9.3 vocal ensemble directed by Catherine Simonpietri, the "family" Artie’s, and more recently with the Consuelo Orchestra under the direction of Victor-Julien Laferrière.
Learn more about François Desforges.
Daniel
Zea Gomez
Atelier d'expérimentation créative / Électroacoustique Jaques-Dalcroze
Designer, sound artist and composer Daniel Zea lives and works in Geneva. His artistic universe revolves around instrumental and electroacoustic music, hybrid performances combining video, sound, gesture capture systems and physical computing, as well as programming.
He regularly collaborates on interdisciplinary projects (visual arts, choreography, performance) and teaches at the Geneva University of Art and Design. He is involved in the artistic direction of the Vortex ensemble, working both as a composer and performer of electroacoustic music.
Very active in the field of education, he has been a reference artist for multidisciplinary artistic residencies at the Royaumont Foundation and, more recently, at GRAME, a centre for musical creation in Lyon.
His piece The Fuck Facebook Face Orchestra won the 2016 Giga Hertz Preis from the ZKM (Karlsruhe, Germany), and in 2017, Pocket Enemy was selected for the International Rostrum of Composers. In 2023, he will receive the Liechti Foundation's Sound Arts Award.
In his work, he reflects critically on our society's relationship with digital technology, sometimes with a certain political commitment that is not without humour. However, his musical interests are not limited to contemporary experimental creation. He is also passionate about folklore. On the Colombian side, he explores the repertoire of the Caribbean region (cumbia, fandango, porro) with Palenque la Papayera. A lover of traditional music from south-eastern Mexico, he is a member of the groups Cocoxoca and Gema y sus Valedores.
Daniel Zea was a guest at the Les Amplitudes Festival in La Chaux-de-Fonds in 2024.
Daniel Zea's website
Laurent
Sourisse
Professeur d'improvisation instrumentale - improvisation instrumentale Jaques-Dalcroze - Harmonie au clavier et écriture - Accompagnement de chansons
Né en 1970 dans une famille de musiciens, Laurent Sourisse étudie au CNSM de Paris avec Thierry Escaich (Fugue et Formes), Marc-André Dalbavie (Orchestration), Alain Louvier (Analyse), Jean-Claude Reynaud (Harmonie) et Bernard de Crépy (Contrepoint), il se perfectionne en improvisation au piano auprès de Thierry Escaich, Alain Savouret, et Isabelle Duha.
Il enseigne l’écriture, l’harmonie pratique, et l’improvisation sur Paris, puis sur Genève depuis 2001. Il est fréquemment sollicité pour des masterclasses et congrès à l’étranger (Taïwan, Japon, Canada, Belgique, France, Espagne), et pour des formations continues et postgrades.
Au sein du trio Meigmata (avec Marie Mercier, clarinette, et Michael Chapon, batterie), il explore l’improvisation aux multiples influences et la composition collective. Il expérimente également l’association avec d’autres pratiques artistiques : danse (Florence Jaccottet, Luisa Schöfer), marionnettes (Fanfare du Loup, Théâtre de Marionnettes de Genève), matchs d’improvisation (impro.ch et HEM).
Máté
Szucs
Professor of Viola
Máté Szücs, a Hungarian-born violist, has had an award-winning career as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral instrumentalist.
Máté served as principal violist of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra from 2011 to 2018, where he also performed as a soloist in Bartók's Viola Concerto in September 2017.
At the age of seventeen, Máté switched from violin to viola and graduated with highest honors from the Royal Conservatory of Brussels and the Royal Conservatory of Flanders in Antwerp. He further pursued studies at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Waterloo, Belgium, graduating with highest distinction.
As a chamber musician, Máté has been a member of various ensembles including the Mendelssohn Ensemble, Con Spirito Piano Quartet, Trio Dor, Enigma Ensemble, and Ensemble "Fragments". He has collaborated with renowned musicians such as Janine Jansen, Frank-Peter Zimmermann, Christian Tetzlaff, Vadim Repin, Ilja Gringolts, Vladimir Mendelssohn, László Fenyő, Kristof Baráti, István Várdai, Camille Thomas, Kirill Troussov, and Julien Quentin.
In addition to solo performances with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, he has appeared with orchestras such as the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of Flanders, Bamberger Symphoniker, Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, and Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, where he also served as principal violist.
Since 2006, Máté has been a regular faculty member at the Thy Chamber Music Festival in Denmark and taught at the Britten-Pears Festival in Aldeburgh, England from 2012 to 2014. He taught for two years at the University of Music in Saarbrücken, from 2014 to 2018 at the Karajan Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, from 2015 to 2018 at the Hanns Eisler University of Music in Berlin, and in 2015-2016 at the Academy of Music in Budapest.
Máté conducts masterclasses worldwide, including in New York, Los Angeles, Michigan, London, Berlin, Brussels, Shanghai, Taipei, Seoul, and Tokyo.
Since 2018, he has been a professor of viola at the Haute école de musique de Genève.
Learn more about Máté Szücs
Amaury
Coeytaux
Professor of violin
- Amaury Coeytaux to join the HEM at the start of the 2025-2026 academic year. --
Over the last few years, Amaury Coeytaux has established himself as one of the most outstanding violinists of his generation.
As The Strad Magazine points out, it is “his great musical sensitivity, impeccable technique and warm sound” that have won him the affection of audiences in the world's greatest concert halls.
A student of Micheline Lefebvre, Jean-Jacques Kantorow and Pinchas Zukerman, he gave his first recital at the age of 9 and made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2004. Since then, he has performed as soloist and chamber musician with Pinchas Zukerman, Yefim Bronfman, Frank Braley, Nicholas Angelich, Gérard Caussé and Myung-Whun Chung at major festivals including La Roque d'Anthéron, Menton, Colmar, Lugano, Salzburg, Rheingau, Bucharest Festival Enescu and Amsterdam.
Now concertmaster of the Modigliani Quartet, he can be heard in the most prestigious concert halls, including the Philharmonie de Paris, the Hamburg Philharmonie, the Berlin Konzerthaus, the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Bilbao Philharmonie, the Prinzregententheater in Munich...
With the Modigliani Quartet, he has also been artistic director of the Saint Paul de Vence Festival and the Bordeaux International String Quartet Competition since 2020.
Passionate about the orchestral repertoire, he collaborates with conductors such as Myung-whun Chung, Gustavo Dudamel, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Tugan Sokhiev. He regularly conducts and performs as soloist with the Radio France Philharmonic, the Strasbourg Philharmonic, the Toulouse Capitole, the Spanish Radio Orchestra, the Navarre Symphony Orchestra, the Aalborg Symphony Orchestra...
Following the release of his latest disc devoted to the Brahms sonatas, he received unanimous praise from international critics, as well as the highest distinctions from Diapason, Classica and Télérama. His discography highlights the richness of his different musical horizons, with concertante works by Ysaye, Brahms trios and numerous quartet recordings, including the complete Schubert quartets released by Mirare in 2022.
Amaury Coeytaux plays a 1715 Stradivarius violin.
