Nina
Uhari
Head of Vocal Department - Professor of Piano Accompaniment - Chamber Music with Piano
Born in Finland, Nina Uhari pursued professional piano studies at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki under the guidance of Matti Raekallio and Eero Heinonen. She furthered her training in Baltimore, USA, with Julian Martin, and later in Paris with Bernard Ringeissen. Additionally, she studied accompaniment at the Conservatoire National de Région in Rueil-Malmaison.
Following her studies, Nina Uhari worked as a conductor at CNIPAL (Centre National d'Insertion pour des Artistes Lyriques) in Marseille from 2003 to 2012, where she became the principal conductor in 2008. Concurrently, she was a member of the opera role class at the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris.
In September 2012, Nina Uhari joined the HEM (Haute Ecole de Musique) in Geneva as a vocal coach for the singing classes at the Neuchâtel and Geneva sites. She has performed in recitals and opera productions in Finland and France, including at the MIDEM Festival, Chorégies d'Orange, Théâtre du Châtelet, Festival de Radio France et Montpellier, Festival d'Aix en Provence, and various French opera houses. Her international performances have taken her to Germany, Austria, Spain, Colombia, Togo, and the United States. She has been invited to accompany master classes with renowned artists such as Tom Krause, Yvonne Minton, Mady Mesplé, Regina Werner, and Janine Reiss.
Learn more about Nina Uhari.
Rodolphe
Schacher
Professor of Writing Practice - Analysis - Harmony - Counterpoint
Franco-Swiss composer and pianist Rodolphe Schacher was born in France in 1973. Schacher pursued his musical studies in Paris, Geneva, and Zurich, under the guidance of Michael Jarrell, Thierry Escaich, Gerald Bennett, and Ulrich Koella.
He has been awarded five first prizes (harmony, counterpoint, Renaissance counterpoint, fugue and forms, and 20th-century music) at the CNSM in Paris and received the composition and theory diploma with honors, as well as the concert diploma in chamber music from the Zurich University of the Arts.
Alongside his artistic activities, Schacher teaches analysis and writing at the Haute école de musique de Genève, writing at the Haute école de musique de Lausanne, and taught composition until June 2015 at the Zurich University of the Arts.
Ophélie
Gaillard
Cello Professor
An insatiable curiosity, a taste for risk, an immoderate appetite for the whole of the concerted cello repertoire, complete disregard of limits and petty quarrels: those are no doubt the features that have always set this brilliant Franco-Swiss musician apart. Her passion? Working from the sources, inquiring into the text, using her virtuosity to bring out the musical discourse and make the music loved by all.
Named “Revelation: Solo Instrumentalist of the Year” at the French Classical Music Awards (Victoires) in 2003, she has since appeared in recital at many reknowed venues: Concertgebouw Bruges and Amsterdam; Bozar and Flagey, Brussels; the theatres of Bordeaux, Avignon, Poissy, Aix-en-Provence; the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris; Oji Hall, Tokyo; London’s Wigmore Hall, as well as the most prestigous Orchestras such as l'Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, le Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, le Czech National Symphony Orchestra ou le New Japan Philharmonic
Fond of encounters, she regularly shares the stage with Lambert Wilson, hip-hop dancer Ibrahim Sissoko, choreographers Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Damien Jalet, dancer Hugo Marchand (Etoile of the Opéra National de Paris), or Brazilian star singer of bossa nova Toquinho (live album Canto de sereia recorded for Aparté at the MiTo festival in 2017).
In 2005, she found Pulcinella, a collective of virtuosos with a passion for performance practice on period instruments. The recording devoted to Vivaldi, Boccherini and Bach reaped excellent ratings and several awards, among them a DIAPAON D’OR of the year.
A sought-after teacher, she regularly gives masterclasses in Europe, Asia and Central America. She is regularly invited as a member of the Jury at the ARD and Geneva Competitions and in 2014 she was appointed Professor at the Haute Ecole de Musique in Geneva.
Ophélie Gaillard plays a cello by Francesco Goffriller (1737), generously on loan from the CIC, and also an anonymous Flemish violoncello piccolo.
Learn more about Ophélie Gaillard
Sarah
Branchi-Cascone
Professor of piano Jaques-Dalcroze
Born in Aix-en-Provence, Sarah Branchi Cascone began her musical studies there, later completing them at the CRR of Montpellier. After obtaining Diplomas in Musical Studies in piano and chamber music, she joined the Cefedem-Sud (now IESM) at a very young age, where she earned a piano teaching diploma.
Her musical journey then led her to the Haute école de musique de Genève (HEM) to continue her studies in the class of Dominique Weber. There, she obtained a teaching diploma and later a concert diploma.
Passionate about pedagogy and teaching from a young age, Sarah Branchi Cascone has been teaching piano since 2003 at the Institut Jaques-Dalcroze and within the Master’s in Pedagogy program, Jaques-Dalcroze orientation, at HEM.
She has performed as a soloist and in various chamber music formations in Switzerland, France, and Argentina. In 2008, she founded the Tashko-Branchi duo with pianist Olta Tashko. The two pianists regularly perform recitals in France and Switzerland. In 2017, they participated in the complete concertos of J.S. Bach for 2, 3, and 4 pianos with the Terpsycordes Quartet. In 2019, they premiered the show "Vagabond et Visionnaire" by S. Arnauld, based on poems by F. Nietzsche.
Gilbert
Nouno
Head of the CIMME - Professor of Electronic Music - Multimedia Composition - Interactive Video Design - Internet Music - Interfaces, Digital Instrument Making & Immersive Systems - Concept & Creation, Open Space
Composer, sound artist, pedagogue, and researcher, Gilbert Nouno creates music that is highly in tune with visual arts and digital technologies. Curious about all forms of expression, he effortlessly crosses the boundaries between composition and improvisation. As a visual artist under the name Til Berg, he combines the synesthesia of sound arts with other media. Using music and sounds, he generates abstract and minimalist visuals with traditional and digital media such as video and lithography.
Gilbert Nouno's collaborations are marked by aesthetic plurality with many artists such as Pierre Boulez and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, George Benjamin and the London Sinfonietta, Jonathan Harvey and the Arditti Quartet, saxophonist Steve Coleman, and flutist Magic Malik...
A laureate of the Villa Kujoyama in Kyoto in 2007, and the Villa Medici, Académie de France in Rome in 2011-2012, Gilbert Nouno teaches composition and runs the International Center for Experimental Music and Media (CIMME) at the Haute école de musique de Genève, teaches composition at the Royal College of Music in London , and is a visiting professor invited by the DAAD in Detmold (Germany). He teaches digital sound arts at Goldsmiths, University of London, where he is also a guest researcher, and live electronics & computer music design at Ircam.
Learn more about Gilbert Nouno
Leonardo
Garcia Alarcon
Professor of Maestro al Cembalo - Professor of Elements of Choral Conducting (for Maestro al Cembalo) - Madrigal Ensemble
Argentinian conductor, harpsichordist, and composer Leonardo García Alarcón has become a sought-after figure by major musical and opera institutions, from the Opéra de Paris to the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires and the Grand Théâtre de Genève, where he began his career.
After studying piano in Argentina, Leonardo García Alarcón moved to Europe in 1997 and joined the Conservatoire de Genève in the class of harpsichordist Christiane Jaccottet. Under the guidance of Gabriel Garrido, he ventured into Baroque music. In 2005, he founded his ensemble Cappella Mediterranea to explore Italian, Spanish, and South American Baroque music, a repertoire that has since expanded significantly. In residence at the Festival d’Ambronay, he achieved his first successes there, notably with the 2010 rediscovery of an oratorio by Michelangelo Falvetti: "Il Diluvio Universale." That same year, he took the direction of the Chœur de Chambre de Namur, recognized as one of the best Baroque choral ensembles today, and in 2014, he founded the Millenium Orchestra, focusing primarily on the works of Handel.
Leonardo García Alarcón is also credited with the rediscovery of numerous operas by Cavalli, such as "Eliogabalo" at the Opéra de Paris in 2016, "Il Giasone" in Geneva, "Elena" and "Erismena" at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence in 2017, and at the Opéra de Dijon: "El Prometeo" by Antonio Draghi in 2018, for which he rewrote the missing music of the third act, "La Finta Pazza" by Francesco Sacrati in 2019, and "Il Palazzo Incantato" by Luigi Rossi in late 2020, before its revival in Nancy and Versailles at the end of 2021.
In 2022, he conducted a new production of Lully's famous "Atys," staged and choreographed by Angelin Preljocaj in Geneva and then in Versailles. Shortly after, he conducted Bach’s "St. Matthew Passion" with Cappella Mediterranea at La Seine Musicale and the Dijon auditorium, receiving high praise from critics. He returned to the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence in July with the successful production of Monteverdi’s "L'Incoronazione di Poppea," directed by Ted Huffman. In September 2022, he made his debut conducting the Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam for their annual gala, performing Handel’s "Acis and Galatea" (orchestrated by W.A. Mozart). This year also marked a new chapter in his career with the creation of his oratorio "La Passione di Gesù," his first major contemporary composition, warmly received by audiences at the Festival d’Ambronay and Victoria Hall in Geneva, with upcoming performances at the Festival de Saint-Denis and Grand Manège de Namur.
As a conductor and harpsichordist, he is invited to festivals and concert halls worldwide. In November 2018, he conducted Monteverdi’s "Orfeo," directed by Sasha Waltz, at the Staatsoper Berlin and is a regular guest of Les Violons du Roy in Canada, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, and the Gulbenkian Orchestra. He was recognized as the best conductor in the 2019 Forum Opéra rankings after his triumphant direction of "Les Indes Galantes" at the Opéra Bastille.
Leonardo García Alarcón divides his time between France, Belgium, his native South America, and Switzerland, where he obtained citizenship. He places great importance on education, serving as a professor of the Maestro Al Cembalo class at the Haute école de musique de Genève since 2002.
In 2020, he took on the directorship of La Cité Bleue, a 300-seat performance venue in Geneva currently under renovation, set to open in 2024, with its programming beginning in 2023 with an initial "off-site" season.
His prolific discography is widely acclaimed by critics. In 2021, he released "Rebirth" (Sony Classical) with Sonya Yoncheva; "Lamenti & Sospiri" (Ricercar) with Mariana Flores and Julie Roset; Monteverdi’s "Orfeo" (Alpha Classics) with Valerio Contaldo, and "Bach before Bach" (Alpha Classics) with violinist Chouchane Siranossian. In 2022, he released Handel’s "Semele" with Millenium Orchestra and the Chœur de Chambre de Namur (Ricercar), followed by the world premiere recording of Sacrati’s "La Finta Pazza" (Versailles Spectacles). In 2023, "Amore Siciliano" (Alpha Classics), a project he conceived from popular and scholarly music of 17th- and 18th-century Italy, is set to be released.
Leonardo García Alarcón is a Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters.
Learn more about Leonardo García Alarcón.
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
Noémie
Bialobroda
Professor of viola - Chamber Music with Strings - Coordinator of Chamber Music (GE)
Noémie Bialobroda will be a viola professor for the 2026–2027 academic year.
Born in Paris, violist Noémie Bialobroda performs worldwide on stages such as Wigmore Hall in London, Victoria Hall in Geneva, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Concertgebouw in Rotterdam, Salle Gaveau, Philharmonie de Paris, Théâtre d’Aix en Provence, and Alte Oper Frankfurt.
Since 2014, she has been the violist of the Quatuor Aviv, with which she leads an international career. In 2021, a recording dedicated to Franz Schubert's last two quartets was released on the Aparté label, receiving unanimous praise from the international press.
A dedicated educator, she is a professor and coordinator of chamber music at the Haute école de musique de Genève (HEM). She is also a professor of viola at the CNSMD de Lyon.
Engaged in the creation and performance of contemporary music, Noémie has forged close relationships with key figures in this repertoire. She regularly collaborates with Ensemble Modern in Frankfurt, Ensemble Contrechamps in Geneva, and IRCAM in Paris. She premiered two pieces for viola and electronics dedicated to her: "Caprice" by composer Keïta Matsumiya and "Drifting [mirages...]" by Pierre Stordeur.
In 2020, alongside violinist Sergey Ostrovsky, she founded and assumed the artistic direction of the Geneva International String Academy, offering promising young musicians the opportunity to study and perform with accomplished musicians over the summer.
Noémie Bialobroda trained with Nobuko Imai at the HEM, before pursuing advanced studies with Jean Sulem at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris.
She plays a viola by Carlo Giuseppe Testore and a bow by Benoît Rolland.
Learn more about Noémie Bialobroda
Stephane
Ginsburgh
Professor of Jaques-Dalcroze Piano
Stéphane Ginsburgh has performed as a soloist and chamber musician at numerous international festivals such as Ars Musica, Quincena Musical, ZKM Imatronic, Agora Ircam, Bach Academie Brugge, Ultima Oslo, Darmstadt Ferienkurse, Gaida (Vilnius), Warsaw Autumn, Musica Strasbourg, Klara Festival, and the Accademia Chigiana in Siena.
A tireless explorer of the repertoire and an adventurer in new combinations involving voice, percussion, performance, or electronics, he dedicated himself early on to contemporary music while developing a vast classical repertoire. He regularly performs with the Ictus ensemble and has collaborated with composers such as Frederic Rzewski, Jean-Luc Fafchamps, Stefan Prins, Alec Hall, and Matthew Shlomowitz, premiering their works. He has also worked with choreographers such as Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker. Enthusiastic about immersive performances, Stéphane Ginsburgh has performed the complete Prokofiev sonatas or the last six Beethoven sonatas in a single evening.
After earning a Master's degree in music, he studied with Paul Badura-Skoda, Claude Helffer, Jerome Lowenthal, and Vitaly Margulis. He was the artistic director of the Centre Henri Pousseur, a studio for mixed and electronic music based in Liège. He holds a Bachelor's degree in the philosophy of science from the Université Libre de Bruxelles and a PhD in Arts from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and the Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel.
Stéphane Ginsburgh has recorded about fifteen albums for Sub Rosa, World Edition, Grand Piano (Naxos), and Kairos. His complete recording of Prokofiev's Piano Sonatas, described as a “captivating” and “essential” version (La Libre Belgique), was released by Cypres Records.
Learn more about Stéphane Ginsburgh.
Claude
Gastaldin
Professor of Drums - North Indian Rhythm - Tabla & Konakol
Claude Gastaldin is the author of several works dedicated to the study of rhythm. He graduated with honors in 1986 from the Percussion Institute of Technology in Los Angeles, where he studied with notable musicians such as Ralph Humphrey, E. Toro, A. Acuna, and J. Porcaro. He began his international career in 1985, performing as a drummer with various bands in numerous countries and participating in many recordings.
Currently, he divides his time between his career as a musician and composer through multiple experiences (live performances and studio work) and intense pedagogical activities. In the musical field, he primarily focuses on the group Stoa, which he initiated, and also supports various musicians and artists, particularly Occitan ones, in their projects (Luc Aussibal, J. Privat, B. Manciet, etc.). He also regularly collaborates with Indian musicians N. Battacharya, J. Oumabady, M. Jadhav, and L. K. Sharma, and has recently composed several pieces for percussion quartets and classical orchestras.
Regarding his pedagogical activity: in addition to his position as a professor at the Haute école de musique de Genève and occasional engagements at various educational institutions (Conservatories, Training Centers, Workshops, and Schools), he is the national educational director of the Hohner Sonor Music Academy. He is also a demonstrator artist for a major European drum brand, for which he regularly performs showcases.
