Marcin
Habela
Professor of Voice
Dr. Marcin Habela, a baritone, vocal professor, and researcher, is particularly renowned for his versatility in repertoire, innovative pedagogy aligned with the latest voice science advancements, and his extensive international professional networks.
Trained at the Conservatoire de Paris, he won several international prizes that paved the way for a prestigious career. He has performed over 80 roles spanning a vast repertoire (including Ford, Figaro, Sharpless, Oneguine...) on major stages such as Paris, Berlin, Brussels, Geneva, Warsaw, Athens, Lyon, Marseille, Montpellier, Bremen, Frankfurt, Lausanne, Almaty, and Krakow.
He has sung alongside notable artists like R. Alagna, J. van Dam, T. Hampson, K. Mattila, L. Oropesa, P. Petibon, K. Deshayes in productions conducted by S. Rattle, Ch. von Dohnanyi, J. Tate, E. Krivine, A. Pappano, and directed by A. Arias, S. Braunschweig, M. Hampe, A. Serban, Ph. Himmelman, and S. Poda.
Passionate about contemporary music, he has premiered numerous works by 20th and 21st-century composers in prestigious settings such as Warsaw Autumn, Sacrum Profanum, and the Malta Festival with ensembles like 2E2M and Contrechamps. His concert repertoire ranges from Monteverdi to Britten, with recordings for Radio France, TSR, SBB, EMI, RAI, Espace 2, Virgin, RTS, and SevenStarsSystems.
Critically acclaimed for his creation of Raoul Wallenberg in Kingsley and Kunze's opera "Raoul," he received the Grand Prix du Public for best performer at the Mezzo TV International Opera Competition in November 2008.
In addition to his operatic career, since 2014, he has gained solid experience in musical and experimental theater, and performs concerts with jazz, musical comedy, and symphonic cabaret repertoires.
A vocal professor at the Haute école de musique de Genève (HEM) since 2005, he was head of the vocal department from 2011 to 2022. He initiated the European Opera Academy (EOA) and established numerous institutional collaborations at the cantonal, national, and international levels. Active in professional circles, he serves on the juries of international singing competitions (Ada Sari, Szymanowski Competition, Mahler Competition, ARMEL, Geneva Competition...) and is a member of various artistic commissions (Tibor Varga Academy, Geneva International Competition, European Opera Academy, MAAKSS).
A renowned vocal professor, he is regularly invited to give masterclasses across Europe (Tibor Varga Academy in Sion, Lugano, Stockholm, Warsaw, Porto, Gdansk, Frankfurt, Oslo, Antwerp, Bucharest, Krakow, Paris, Hamburg, Athens...) and internationally (Japan, Brazil, Kazakhstan, Australia, Russia, China...).
With a PhD in arts, specializing in contemporary vocalities, he leads numerous research projects, including in vocal pedagogy (improvisation, national singing schools). He fosters prestigious international collaborations with institutions such as the University of the Arts Oslo, Kapodistrias University of Athens, CNSMDP, Kazakh National Conservatory in Almaty, Astana University of the Arts, UFCM Warsaw, the neuroscience faculty of UNIGE, the medical faculty of Lyon 2 University, and Maastricht Conservatory.
Particularly attentive to his students' professional integration, he maintains a vast international network (opera studios, casting directors, artistic agencies...), with former students like Julien Behr, Marion Grange, Mélody Louledjian, and Diana Lamar performing on prestigious stages such as the MET in New York, Opéra de Paris, and Deutsche Oper in Berlin. He has also trained a generation of pedagogues (Anna Maske, Gabriella Cavasino, Fabrice Farina, Davide Autieri, Magali Pérol-Dumora...) currently teaching at prestigious Swiss institutions.
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Sylviane
Deferne
Professor of piano
Pianist Sylviane Deferne distinguished herself early on in the music world, where the press noted ‘her expressive nobility, intuition, temperament, sense of plasticity and impressive instrumental technique’.
This brilliant performer completed all her musical studies at the Conservatoire de Musique in Geneva, her hometown, where she was unanimously awarded a First Prize for Virtuosity.
Winner of several international competitions and named ‘Soloist of the Year’ by the French-speaking radio community, Sylviane Deferne's career quickly took off. She has performed in Europe, America and Asia and has played as a soloist with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington and the Philharmonia Orchestra in London under the baton of Charles Dutoit.
Pianist Sylviane Deferne has made numerous recordings for the DECCA, Musica Viva, Riche Lieu, DORON music and Aparté labels. She is invited to sit on the jury of international competitions and at music colleges in Switzerland and France, and shares her passion in masterclasses and with her professional students at the Geneva University of Music.
Since 2019, Sylviane Deferne has been artistic director of the Concerts d'Artémont. She brings her artistic vision to an ever-growing audience, developing season after season the highlights and intergenerational sharing.
Her latest albums, recorded at the Salle de Musique in La Chaux-de-Fonds by the Aparté label, are dedicated to Franz Schubert (Der Wanderer, solo piano, 2022), Felix Mendelssohn (complete works for violin and piano with Denitsa Kazakova and the Orchestre des Jeunes de la Suisse Romande, 2024) and Robert Schumann (Zwielicht, solo piano, autumn 2025).
Learn more about Sylviane Deferne.
Hélène
Escriva
Professor of Chamber Music for Brass
A brilliant and bold performer, Hélène Escriva is a free-spirited, enthusiastic, and ever-evolving artist.
She strengthened her classical musician's DNA by joining the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris in the euphonium class, also taking courses in instrumental theater, drama, opera singing, and chamber music. She earned her Master of Interpretation with honors from the jury in 2017.
Her love of travel has taken her across Europe (and to Colombia, the United States, South Korea, Taiwan,...) for recitals, solo concerts, masterclasses, and international academies, making her a prominent figure in the brass world.
A sought-after orchestral musician, she has performed with some of the finest French orchestras (Opéra de Paris, Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre les Dissonances, national orchestras of Lyon, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Lille, etc.).
Hélène brings new visibility to the euphonium, bass trumpet, and baritone saxhorn by developing original chamber music projects (founding member of the bass trumpet/accordion duo with Pierre Cussac, the Saxback wind sextet, and active member of Nicolas Simon’s Symphonie de Poche) and actively contributes to the creation of new euphonium repertoire with composers Nicolas Worms, Robinson Khoury, and Gabriel Philippot.
In 2017, she recorded a live CD of the creation "Libertalia" by Maxime Aulio with the TWO Orchestra.
In 2019, she joined the prestigious Hanneton company of James Thierrée. This transformative troupe, an energizing carousel, combines music and body movements with chaotic sets. Hélène trained in live performance with actors, circus artists, dancers, and technicians for the shows MO’S and ROOM and embarked on an international tour from 2022 to 2024.
Inspired by this stage experience, and surrounded by a team of generous and committed artists, she developed the CL-ASH! Project in 2023, aiming to create creative, alternative concert-performances, driven by the desire to contribute to a vibrant cultural world, with a fierce determination to open new worlds and break codes.
Hélène is a Yamaha artist and plays the Euphonium Custom YEP-842S. She has taught bass trumpet at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris since 2021 and chamber music at the Haute école de musique de Genève since 2022.
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Denis
Severin
Professor of Cello
Denis Severin studied at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow with D. Miller, at the Haute école de musique de Genève with Daniel Grosgurin, and at the Academy of Music in Basel with Thomas Demenga. He earned teaching and soloist diplomas with distinction. He furthered his studies at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in baroque cello, chamber music, and string quartet under Christophe Coin. He also attended masterclasses with J. Starker, N. Gutman, T. Mørk, A. Bylsma, A. Meneses, G. Hoffman, W. Böttcher, and B. Mate.
An award winner at international competitions, D. Severin has regularly performed as a soloist with orchestras such as the National Orchestra of Ukraine, the European Youth Orchestra, Les Solistes de Kiev, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Basel Symphony Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of Pskov (Russia), and the Kharkiv Philharmonic (Ukraine).
As a chamber musician, he plays with numerous ensembles and is frequently invited to festivals in Germany, the Netherlands, France, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Sweden, Russia, Spain, Ukraine, Serbia, Singapore, Poland, Turkey, and England. His extensive discography includes a Rachmaninov program for cello and piano with Sony and the Brandenburg Concertos with the Swiss Baroque Soloists for Naxos, which was nominated for a Grammy Award.
Since 2006, he has taught cello and chamber music at the International Summer Music Academy at the Château de Beuggen in Germany. He is a regular guest professor for cello and early music at the National Music Academy of Kyiv and the University of the Arts in Kharkiv (Ukraine). He is a cello professor at the Haute école des arts in Bern and leads a cello class at the Haute école de musique de Genève, Neuchâtel site.
Denis Severin plays a Jean-Nicolas Lambert cello from 1750 and a Vincenzo Panormo cello from 1800.
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Nelson
Goerner
Professor of Piano
--- Nelson Goerner will not be taking on any new students for the start of the 2025-26 academic year ---
Born in 1969 in San Pedro, Argentina, Nelson Goerner began studying piano at the age of five with Jorge Garruba and continued his studies at the National Conservatory of Music in Buenos Aires with Juan Carlos Arabian and Carmen Scalcione. He gave his first concert in his hometown in 1980 and won the First Prize at the Franz Liszt Competition in Buenos Aires in 1986. Thanks to his exceptional talent, Martha Argerich awarded him a scholarship to study at the Conservatoire de Genève in Maria Tipo's virtuosity class.
September 1990 marked a turning point in his career when he won the First Prize at the Geneva Competition unanimously for his performance of Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, which invited him back the following season to perform Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1. This award led to numerous concerts in Europe and a successful tour in Japan.
Since then, Nelson Goerner has been invited by most major French festivals and has given recitals in many European cities. He also performs chamber music with the Takács Quartet in the UK, Spain, Italy, and France, the Carmina Quartet in Switzerland, the Ysaye Quartet in Holland, and with Steven Isserlis and Vadim Repin in London.
Nelson Goerner has performed with the Philharmonia Orchestra under Claus-Peter Flor, the London Philharmonic and the Residentie Orchestra of The Hague under Franz Welser-Möst, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra with Neeme Järvi, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and Andrew Davis, the Bayerische Rundfunk Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and David Zinman, the Netherlands Philharmonic and Vassily Sinaisky, the Bordeaux and Montpellier Orchestras with Yutaka Sado, the Orchestre National de France and Hans Graf, among many others. His future engagements include concerts with the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Liège Orchestra, the NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo, and recitals in London, Paris, Lyon, Manchester, and Dallas.
Nelson Goerner has recorded a Chopin recital (EMI Classics), a Rachmaninov recital and the 12 Transcendental Etudes by Liszt for Cascavelle, Rachmaninov's Preludes and Piano Concerto No. 3 with the BBC Philharmonic conducted by Vassily Sinaisky, Busoni's works for piano and orchestra, Liszt's concertos, a Brahms and Schubert recital for Cascavelle, and a new work by John Lord for EMI Classics. His recent recordings of Chopin on historical instruments have earned him a Diapason d'Or.
Learn more about Nelson Goerner.
Sarah
Verrue
Professeure of harp - chamber music with harp
Belgian harpist Sarah Verrue made a name for herself early on as a prize winner at the Dutch International Harp Competition, the Rotary Competition, the UFAM and the Martine Geliot Competition. At the age of 24, she became principal harpist of the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra under the baton of Paavo Järvi. Since 2019, she has been guest harpist with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra.
Sarah holds a Master's degree in music and chamber music from the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris under the direction of Isabelle Moretti. She was a member of the Munich National Opera Academy in 2012 and, a year later, she took classes with Marie-Pierre Langlamet and played at the Karajan Academy of the Berliner Philharmoniker.
Sarah has performed as a chamber musician at renowned festivals such as the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the Salzburg Festival, the MDR Musiksommer, the Festival van Vlaanderen and the Festival de Menton.
As a soloist, Sarah has performed with the Munich Chamber Orchestra, the Nieuwe Philharmonie Utrecht, the Graubünden Chamber Orchestra and the Cannes Symphony Orchestra.
Sarah has often worked in musical theatre at the Philharmonie du Luxembourg, in productions such as Cendrillon and Wolkenwanderer. In Zurich, she is involved in specialised schools for children with disabilities. In the summer, she is a coach at the Verbier Festival Orchestra, where she teaches and supports young musicians.
Gérard
Metrailler
Professor of trompet
Beginning his musical journey at the Harmonie de Chalais and later becoming a member of the Brass Band 13 Étoiles, Gérard Métrailler continued his musical studies at the Conservatoire de musique de Genève under Mario Alberti, and later with Michel Cuvit, earning a Diploma with highest honors in 1985 followed by a First Prize in Virtuosity in 1988. Even before completing his studies, he was appointed as a substitute principal trumpet player with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande in 1987.
In Geneva, he won the 2nd prize at the International Music Performance Competition in 1987 and the 2nd prize at the Maurice André Competition in Paris in 1988. He also received the Bronze Medal at the International Festival of Young Soloists in Bordeaux in 1989.
His repertoire includes major trumpet concertos by composers such as Haydn, Hummel, and Tomasi, but he also emphasizes works by Swiss composers like Hindemith, Zbinden, and Schmidt. He excels in pieces for trumpet and chamber orchestra or organ by Albinoni, Bach, Tartini, and Vivaldi.
Currently, Gérard Métrailler is a trumpet player with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, principal trumpet of the contemporary music ensemble Contrechamps, and a member of the Quintet du Rhône.
Gérard Métrailler conducts masterclasses in Switzerland, France, Italy, New Zealand, and Brazil. He has been a professor of trumpet at the Haute école de musique de Genève since 1994.
Learn more about Gérard Métrailler.
Patrik Vincent
Dasen
Professor of Ethnomusicology, Master’s Research Seminar, World Music Workshop
Patrik Dasen graduated in ethnomusicology from the Université Paris X Nanterre (Maîtrise, 1999) and the Université de Nice Sophia-Antipolis (Master 2, 2009), where he also completed a doctoral thesis in March 2020 entitled "Becoming and Being a Maker of Irish Bagpipes Uilleann Pipes: Between Deterritorialization and Heritage Preservation," under the supervision of Prof. Luc Charles-Dominique. His research focuses on the processes of transmission and heritage preservation of musical traditions.
He worked for ten years at the Ateliers d'ethnomusicologie de Genève as the head of educational activities and public relations. He also led, with a small team, the cataloging and digitization campaign of the Archives Internationales de Musique Populaire (AIMP, 2005-2011) by Constantin Brailoiu, which are now fully accessible at the Musée d'ethnographie de Genève thanks to this preservation effort. He has been teaching ethnomusicology and the sociology of contemporary music at the Haute école de musique de Genève since 2008.
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Florence
Jaccottet
Head of the Music and Movement Department - Rhythmician, teacher, movement artist
Born in Lausanne in 1989, Florence Jaccottet is currently Head of the Music and Movement Department at the Geneva University of Music (HEM), where she has been teaching rhythm, movement technique and composition, and creative experimentation workshops since 2019.
A specialist in the Jaques-Dalcroze method, she has over 10 years' experience in teaching rhythm, acquired in particular at the Jaques-Dalcroze Institute, where she taught a variety of audiences for several years. Her teaching has been recognised with several awards, including a prize for excellence in music theory teaching and the Alethéia Foundation Prize for the creation of ‘Entrée en matières’ (2017), in collaboration with percussionist Michael Chapon.
Florence Jaccottet was trained from childhood in Jaques-Dalcroze eurhythmics at the Lausanne Conservatory. She also studied piano there in Helena Maffli's class, obtaining a Prize for Excellence in 2008. At the HEM Geneva, she pursued a Bachelor of Arts in Music and Movement (Marguerite Croptier Lange Teaching Prize, 2011), a Master of Arts in Jaques-Dalcroze Pedagogy (Jaques-Dalcroze Institute Prize, 2013), and then a Higher Diploma, obtained in 2019.
Alongside her teaching, Florence Jaccottet is developing artistic research focused on the musicality of improvised movement.
She has a particular interest in contemporary music repertoire, collaborations with composers, and performative and sound experiments. Placed at the heart of her artistic research, the expression of rhythm and musicality of movement through improvisation makes her dance a unique contemporary language.
Also active internationally, Florence Jaccottet is regularly invited to teach, notably in Seoul, Montreal and Beijing.
Tedi
Papavrami
Professor of Violin
Arriving at a very young age in France, Tedi Papavrami discovered a country and culture that were completely foreign to him. His natural curiosity and the need to master the French language in order to make this country his own, along with initial great solitude, drove him to devour books, always in French: Stendhal, Proust, Flaubert, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Kafka... This curiosity beyond borders, combined with intellectual and artistic demands, allowed him to bridge the gap between his original domain and other horizons, making him a rare interpreter in the musical world.
Thus, in 2000, after the passing of Albanian translator J. Vrioni, he naturally took up the mantle of translating the works of Ismaïl Kadaré, whom he had known as a child in Albania. This foray into the literary world also became a way for him to "professionally exist for the first time outside of the violin." In 2013, he continued this journey with the writing of "Fugue pour Violon Seul" published by Robert Laffont. Unanimously praised by the press, this autobiographical account narrates his journey as a child prodigy in Albania and his passage to the West, towards freedom.
However, this diversification would not have been possible without an early and singular focus on the violin from his young years. The instrument, which had always been a part of his life, was introduced to him at the age of 5 by his father, a brilliant professor with extensive pedagogical experience. Tedi's progress was rapid: three years later, he performed Sarasate's "Zigeunerweisen" with an orchestra. At eleven, he publicly performed Paganini's Concerto No. 1 with the formidable Sauret cadenza.
In 1982 in Albania, a country cut off from the world, he was noticed by flutist Alain Marion who arranged for him to be invited to Paris as a French government scholarship student. He then studied with Pierre Amoyal at the C.N.S.M in Paris for four years.
At the end of his studies, at the age of 15, Tedi pursued his musical and instrumental development independently. Shortly before, with his parents, he fled the communist regime in Albania to settle with them in France. Severe sanctions were imposed in retaliation on the rest of the family remaining in Albania, lasting until the fall of the communist regime in 1991. Tedi and his parents left Paris to avoid being within reach of Albanian embassy officials searching for them and settled near Bordeaux.
Benefiting from several awards, T. Papavrami began a career as a soloist and chamber musician from the 1990s onwards. He has since collaborated as a soloist with conductors such as K. Sanderling, A. Jordan, E. Krivine, M. Honeck, F.X. Roth, Th. Fischer, G. Varga, M. Aeschenbacher… In chamber music, he was a member of the Schumann Quartet, a piano quartet, for 9 years, and he performs in concert or on recordings with partners such as Philippe Bianconi, Gary Hoffman, Marc Coppey, Nelson Goerner, Martha Argerich, Maria Joao Pires, Viktoria Mullova, Paul Meyer, and Lawrence Power.
Now based in Geneva, Switzerland, Tedi holds a position as Professor of Violin at the HEM. He plays on a violin made in 2022 for him by luthier David Leonard Wiedmer.
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