Hélène
Nicolet
Professor of Instrumental Improvisation - jaques-Dalcroze Eurhythmics
Hélène Nicolet was born in Geneva, Switzerland, and began her musical journey through Dalcroze Eurhythmics at the Jaques-Dalcroze Institute from a young age. With a jazz musician father and an educator mother, her artistic path has been deeply influenced by improvisation and a corporeal approach.
She obtained her teaching license in the Dalcroze method in 2006 (awarded for the best level of license, best adult lesson, and best rhythmic exam). Her commitment to teaching was further solidified when she earned a Master of Music Diploma from the Haute école de musique de Genève.
During her stay in New York in 2011, she enhanced her interest in movement by becoming a Certified Movement Analyst at the Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies. In 2013, she completed her Advanced Diploma at the Jaques-Dalcroze Institute, the highest title allowing her to fully teach and represent the method (Eurhythmics, Solfege, Improvisation).
Alongside her professional training, Hélène Nicolet studied classical piano and received the amateur certificate from the Federation of Music Schools with honors from the jury. She continued her piano study through jazz and classical improvisation. She started playing the cello in her teens and participated in various musical formations (accompanist for opera singers or instrumentalists, baroque trio, jazz-folk duo, and jazz quartet).
Currently, she teaches students in the Music and Movement department (Bachelor, Master, and CAS in Dalcroze Eurhythmics). She is frequently invited abroad to teach and present the Jaques-Dalcroze method at various universities and partner centers. Additionally, she works at the Jaques-Dalcroze Institute, where she has been the director since August 2023.
Research Projects
Proceedings of the Jaques-Dalcroze Institute Congress:
https://www.hesge.ch/hem/recherche-developpement/projets-recherche/termine/actes-du-congres-linstitut-jaques-dalcroze
Publications
Silvia Del Bianco, Sylvie Morgenegg, Hélène Nicolet, Pédagogie, art et science: l’apprentissage par et pour la musique selon la méthode Jaques-Dalcroze, actes du Congrès de l’ijd 2015, Editions Droz et HEM, 2017.
https://www.hesge.ch/hem/publications/pedagogie-art-et-science
Mary Brice, Ruth Gianadda, Hélène Nicolet, « Racines d’une pratique encore en mouvement », 2019.
https://www.dalcroze.ch/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Racines-dune-pratique-encore-en-mouvement.pdf
Mary Brice, Ruth Gianadda, Hélène Nicolet, « Roots of a practice still in movement », 2019.
https://www.dalcroze.ch/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Roots-of-a-practice-still-in-movement.pdf
Vincent
Thevenaz
Professor of Organ - Improvisation (for organists) - Introduction to Music Reading - Music Reading - Music Reading and Transposition - Chamber Music with Organ
Vincent Thévenaz is a professor of organ and improvisation at the Haute Ecole de Musique de Genève, and the titular organist and carillon player at the St. Peter's Cathedral in Geneva. He is frequently invited for concerts, competition juries, and masterclasses across Europe, Asia, and the Americas.
With a comprehensive education spanning organ, piano, classical and jazz improvisation, musicology, music theory, conducting, singing, French and Russian literature, Vincent Thévenaz continuously seeks to invigorate and diversify the organ world. He pushes the boundaries of genres and enriches his interpretations with a profound knowledge of works and their contexts. His repertoire ranges widely from medieval to contemporary and current music of various origins.
Vincent Thévenaz has developed a significant focus on improvisation, exploring the power of the present moment. He practices improvisation in liturgy, concerts, and accompanying silent films. His teaching is enriched by an approach that views written music as an endless source of inspiration and improvisation as a questioning of freedom in interpretation.
As a recognized specialist in the harmonium, he owns a collection of high-quality historical instruments and performs them in recitals and ensembles. His expertise has led him to collaborate with musicians such as Leonidas Kavakos and Yuja Wang, and with the Scharoun Ensemble of the Berlin Philharmonic, earning praise from Simon Rattle: "played by you, the harmonium becomes a living and exciting instrument."
He combines the organ with numerous instruments of diverse origins, including classical (violin, flute) and unusual (saxophone, Alpine horn, percussion) sounds, and plays cousin instruments such as carillon, cinema organ, Hammond organ, keyboards, and percussion.
Vincent Thévenaz is also known for his arrangements, transcribing music of various styles for organ or chamber music formations, and collaborating with orchestras and ensembles. He arranged and directed the annual show "Chantons Noël," creating an original setting for traditional melodies. He also arranged a version for ensemble of Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition."
In 2009-2010, he performed Bach's complete organ works in 14 concerts, followed by Mendelssohn's organ works in 2017, both receiving great acclaim. His duo "W" with saxophonist Vincent Barras has produced two CDs of original repertoire. He has recorded two critically acclaimed CDs with Sony's Ensemble Gli Angeli Genève (Stephan MacLeod). For the 50th anniversary of Geneva Cathedral's Metzler organ, he produced a CD showcasing the treasures of Geneva composers' organ music.
Vincent Thévenaz collaborates with numerous ensembles and conductors (Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Ensemble Contrechamps, Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, Lausanne Vocal Ensemble, Capella Mediterranea, Leonardo Garcia Alarcon, Valery Gergiev, Heinz Holliger, Michel Corboz, Lawrence Foster, Antonio Pappano, etc.). In 2005, he founded the Orchestre Buissonnier, a young musicians' ensemble, which he regularly conducts.
Learn more about Vincent Thévenaz.
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
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.
Diego
Chenna
Professor of bassoon
Diego Chenna joins the HEM as bassoon professor for the 2026–2027 academic year
Diego Chenna studied bassoon at the Turin Conservatory of Music with V. Menghini and at the Stuttgart University of Music with S. Azzolini. At the same time, he was a member of the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra and the European Union Youth Orchestra conducted by Claudio Abbado, who also invited him to play in the Lucerne Festival Orchestra and to collaborate with the Orchestra Mozart Bologna as a teacher, principal bassoonist and soloist. In 1998, he won first prize in the Fernand Gillet International Competition in the United States.
As a soloist, he has performed with the Italian National Radio and Television Orchestra, the Orchestra da camera di Mantova, the Camerata Bern, the Camerata Zürich, the Moscow Soloists, the European Union Chamber Orchestra, the Georgian State Symphony Orchestra, the Kammerakademie Potsdam and the Beethoven Academie (Antwerp), among others. In 2006, the 250th anniversary of Mozart's birth, he performed the Concerto for Bassoon and Orchestra K. 191 with the Kremerata Baltica. As a chamber musician, he has performed with Heinz Holliger, Alexander Lonquich, Yuri Bashmet, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Maurice Bourgue and many others, and has been invited to major international festivals.
A tireless researcher, he devotes himself to the interpretation of forgotten works for bassoon, contemporary music and the development of new instrumental techniques, as well as the use of live electronics in his concerts. Many composers have dedicated works to him.
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).
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.
Learn more about Hélène Escriva
Christophe
Delannoy
Professor of Percussion - Sight-Reading (Percussion) - Orchestral Excerpts in Section or Tutti (Percussion)
Christophe Delannoy studied in Paris at the Conservatoire de Bourg-la-Reine, where he obtained a Gold Medal and a First Prize in percussion. He then attended the Conservatoire de Créteil, where he was awarded the First Prize in percussion. Finally, at the Conservatoire de Genève, he trained in acoustic and musical management.
He began his career as a percussionist with numerous ensembles, including the Orchestre Philharmonique des Pays de Loire, the Orchestre de Picardie, the Orchestre de Chambre d'Ile de France, and the Orchestre Erwartung d'Ile-de-France. In 1996, he joined the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande as the first percussionist and snare drum soloist. He has participated in numerous musical projects with the International Percussion Center, the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, and the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana, among others.
Christophe Delannoy teaches percussion at the Haute école de musique de Genève.
Learn more about Christophe Delannoy.
Loïc
Schneider
Professeur de flûte traversière
Loïc Schneider will join the HEM as flute professor for the 2027–2028 academic year
An internationally renowned flutist, Loïc Schneider has established himself as one of the most brilliant artists of his generation. Recognised by his peers for his artistic qualities, he has won numerous major competitions, including first prize at the Nicolet Competition in 2006, the Larrieu Competition in 2007 and the prestigious ARD Competition in Munich in 2010 (first prize and audience prize).
These distinctions have taken him to the world's greatest concert halls (Bunka Kaikan, Herkulessaal, Bamberg Philharmonie, Lotte Hall, Taipei National Concert Hall, etc.) and fuelled a particularly remarkable career in Asia, where he performs regularly in China, Korea and Taiwan.
Trained in France in Strasbourg, his hometown, then in Paris at the CNSMDP, he began his orchestral career at a very young age: at only 22, he was appointed principal flute of the Orchestre National de Lorraine, before joining the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande in Geneva in 2009 in the same position, under the direction of leading conductors.
A sought-after soloist and renowned teacher, he is frequently invited to sit on the jury of major international competitions (Geneva, Nicolet, Cluj). He also gives numerous masterclasses around the world, both in Europe and Asia.
Always passionate about passing on his knowledge, he has been teaching for over ten years at the Haute École de Musique de Lausanne (HEMU).
Stéphane
Orlando
Professeur d'Ateliers d'improvisation (coordinateur) - Harmonie au clavier et écriture Jaques-Dalcroze - Improvisation instrumentale
Lauréat du prix SABAM for culture pour la musique contemporaine en 2020, le pianiste et compositeur Stéphane Orlando collabore régulièrement avec plusieurs musicien-ne-s, ensembles et orchestres.
Depuis 2022, il est devenu compositeur en résidence à l'Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège.
Stéphane Orlando puise son inspiration dans la musique classique, traditionnelle et le jazz, mais aussi dans sa propre pratique de l'improvisation au piano.
Il aime aussi bien composer pour un seul instrument ou en musique de chambre, avec ou sans électronique, que pour orchestre, mais il aime surtout inscrire sa musique dans un contexte narratif riche, avec une forte sensibilité pour les images, les mots et les mouvements.
Stéphane Orlando enseigne l’improvisation instrumentale à la Haute école de musique de Genève (HEM).
En savoir plus sur Stéphane Orlando
