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
Bruno
Cocset
Professor of Cello
Born in 1963, Bruno Cocset graduated from the Conservatoire National de Région de Tours. He was admitted to the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Lyon in 1980, where he studied with Alain Meunier, and later with Jean Deplace, leaving his class in March 1983 due to stylistic differences.
He approached the baroque cello and gut string playing as an autodidact and later with Christophe Coin, becoming the first graduate of his class at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et Danse de Paris (First Prize with unanimous distinction in 1986). He also attended masterclasses by cellist Anner Bijlsma and violinist Jaap Schroeder.
Twenty years of rich experiences and musical collaborations followed: Les Arts Florissants, Mosaïques, Fitzwilliam, Ensemble Baroque de Limoges, Le Concert Français, La Petite Bande, Les Musiciens du Louvre, Les Talens Lyriques, Arsys, Ricercar Consort, l’Arpeggiata, Stradivaria, l’Amoroso, Al Ayre Español, Henri Ledroit, Véronique Gens, Maurice Bourgue, Franz Brüggen, Gustav Leonhardt, Jos Van Immerseel, Jean-Claude Malgoire, Philippe Herreweghe…
His most faithful affiliations are with Il Seminario Musicale by Gérard Lesne (1988-2004), and the Concert des Nations and Hesperion XX-XXI by Jordi Savall (1990-2005). In 1996, he founded Les Basses Réunies and self-produced his first solo recording: the sonatas of Antonio Vivaldi. This disc, welcomed by the Alpha label, received the Vivaldi prize from the Cini Foundation in Venice. About ten other recordings, praised by French and international music critics, led to regular invitations to perform in France, Europe, Quebec, and Russia.
Each of these recording projects is linked to a sound and organological research collaboration with luthier Charles Riché. Nine instruments have emerged from this collaboration. As a musician-researcher, he thus offers a "plural" cello. He is now exclusively dedicated to this path and to teaching. In September 2005, he was appointed Professor of Baroque Cello at the Haute école de musique de Genève.
Learn more about Bruno Cocset.
Laura Monica
Pustilnik
Professor of Lute - Basso Continuo on the Instrument (for Lutenists)
After studying guitar and piano at the Conservatorio Nacional Lopez Buchardo in Argentina, Mónica Pustilnik completed her training in 2010 with a Master of Arts at the Schola Cantorum in Basel under Hopkinson Smith. She specializes in the baroque and renaissance repertoire for lute and completed her training with Jesper Christensen for basso continuo on the lute and harpsichord, Rolf Lislevand at the Musikhochschule in Trossingen, Germany, Michel Corboz in choral conducting at the Conservatoire Supérieur de Musique de Genève, and Jordi Mora in orchestral conducting in Barcelona.
Mónica Pustilnik is very active as a soloist, chamber musician, and in opera or oratorio productions. She regularly performs and records with renowned ensembles such as Le Concert d’Astrée (dir. Emmanuelle Haïm), La Cappella Mediterranea (dir. Leonardo García Alarcón), Les Musiciens du Louvre (dir. Marc Minkowski), Les Talens Lyriques (dir. Christophe Rousset), Concerto Vocale (dir. René Jacobs), Ensemble Elyma (dir. Gabriel Garrido), Les Arts Florissants (W. Christie), and many others.
Mónica Pustilnik has assisted in the musical direction of Cavalli’s Eliogabalo at the Opéra Garnier in Paris, Cavalli’s Elena at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo at the Opéra de Lille, Cavalli’s Hipermestra at the Utrecht Early Music Festival, and L’Incoronazione di Poppea at the Haute école de musique de Genève. She has performed in recitals at the Konzerthaus in Vienna, the Poznan Festival (Poland), Ravello (Italy), Freunde Alter Musik Basel, and has developed numerous chamber music programs at the Opéra de Lille. In 2014, she directed performances of Cavalli’s Elena at the Opéra de Nantes and Angers.
Mónica Pustilnik records for the labels Harmonia Mundi, Naïve, Virgin, Arcana, Glossa, and K617. Her solo recording, featuring works by Alessandro Piccinini for the Accent label in 2014, was highly praised by critics.
Her pedagogical activities have led her to teach lute, basso continuo, and chamber music at the Escuela Superior de Música de Cataluña in Barcelona, the Conservatorio A. Scontrino in Trapani (Italy), and the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris. Mónica Pustilnik has been teaching lute at the Haute école de musique de Genève since September 2017.
Learn more about Laura Monica Pustilnik
Marius
Brenciu
Professeur de chant
Marius Brenciu obtained his bachelor's degree (1997) and a master's degree in vocal art (1998) from the University of Music in Bucharest. He taught singing at the same institution between 1997 and 2000.
He participated in numerous competitions and won many prizes, including the George Enescu First Prize in 1999, Queen Elisabeth Competition (2nd Prize and Prize for Best Opera Performance) in 2000, 1st Prize and 4 special prizes at the YCA Competition in New York and the Cardiff Singer of the World Competition (the Lied Prize and the Singer of the World Prize) in 2001.
He has worked under the direction of prestigious conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Seiji Ozawa, Lorin Maazel and Zubin Mehta, to name but a few, and has performed with major international ensembles. He has worked with directors such as Franco Zeffirelli, Peter Stein, Nicolas Joel, Giancarlo del Monaco, Karl and Ursel Hermann, among others.
Marius Brenciu has been a member of the Artistic Committee of the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition - singing section (since 2004) and a member of the Jury (2011, 2014 and 2018 editions). He is regularly invited to give masterclasses in Belgium, France and the United States.
Stephan
Macleod
Professor of Voice
Stephan MacLeod is a singer and conductor. Born in Geneva, he is the founder and artistic director of Gli Angeli Genève, a vocal and instrumental ensemble specializing in 16th to 19th-century repertoires on period instruments. He conducts between 40 and 50 concerts annually worldwide, with an increasing number as a guest conductor with modern orchestras, particularly in the repertoire of J.S. Bach and his contemporaries. Concurrently, he continues his singing career and has been teaching at the Haute école de musique de Genève since 2023, after ten years of teaching at the Haute école de musique de Lausanne from 2013 to 2023.
During the 2023/24 season, he leads Gli Angeli Genève in numerous projects, where he also sings the bass solo parts: Bach's St. Matthew Passion at the Basilica of Vézelay, Bach's B minor Mass at the Victoria Hall and on a Swiss tour, Bach's Magnificat at the Bruges Festival, as well as at Musiques en été in Geneva, the Besançon Festival, and in Alsace, numerous Bach cantatas as part of Gli Angeli Genève's complete cantata concert series, Handel's Messiah at the Victoria Hall and on tour, and Mozart's Requiem, alongside concertos and symphonies by Mozart and Haydn during the ensemble's annual Mozart-Haydn Festival, where he also sings the title role in Mendelssohn's Paulus under the baton of Leonardo Garcia Alarcón. He will conduct the OSR in March in a program blending Stravinsky with Machaut and Gesualdo, the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra in a symphonic program where he also sings two Mozart concert arias, the Oslo Baroque Orchestra in a Telemann-Bach program, and perform as a soloist at the Festival de la Chaise-Dieu, the Berlin Staatsoper Baroque Festival, and in Leipzig with the Gewandhaus Orchestra and the Thomanerchor. He will tour with Bach's Magnificat and the Nederlandse Bachvereniging in December and Bach's St. Matthew Passion with Philippe Herreweghe's Collegium Vocale Gent in March. He will sing Bach's other Passion in March in Hungary and continue recording the complete Wind Concertos by Mozart with Gli Angeli Genève.
Recent highlights include performing and recording the previously unpublished symphonie concertante for two cellos and orchestra by Anton Reicha with Gli Angeli Genève and cellists Christophe Coin and Davit Melkonyan, conducting the Philharmonie Zuidnederland in Bach's St. Matthew Passion, another St. Matthew Passion at the KKL in Lucerne with Gli Angeli Genève, a recital of Mozart arias at the Grand Théâtre de Genève, several Lieder recitals with Kristian Bezuidenhout, performing and recording the complete flute concertos by Mozart (released in 2022), acclaimed recordings of Bach's St. Matthew Passion (2020), B minor Mass (2021), Cantatas for Bass (2022), and St. John Passion (2023), as well as a Josquin disc in 2023.
In 2019, he received an ICMA award with Gli Angeli Genève in the category "Best Vocal Baroque Recording of the Year" for the CD Sacred Music of the 17th Century in Wroclaw (Claves).
Stephan MacLeod studied violin and piano before turning to singing, initially studying at the Conservatoire de Genève, then with Kurt Moll at the Musikhochschule in Cologne, and finally with Gary Magby at the Haute École de Musique de Lausanne. His singing career began during his studies in Germany with a fruitful collaboration with Reinhard Goebel and Musica Antiqua Köln. This opened the doors to the world of oratorio for him. Since then, he has sung on the world's most prestigious stages, under conductors such as Philippe Herreweghe, Jordi Savall, Frieder Bernius, Franz Brüggen, Masaaki Suzuki, Michel Corboz, Gustav Leonhardt, Christophe Coin, Konrad Junghänel, Hans-Christoph Rademann, Sigiswald Kuijken, Vaclav Luks, Philippe Pierlot, Helmut Rilling, Rudolf Lutz, Raphaël Pichon, Paul Van Nevel, and Jos Van Immerseel, as well as with Daniel Harding and Jesús López Cobos. He has also sung in opera productions at La Monnaie in Brussels, Teatro La Fenice in Venice, Grand Théâtre de Genève, Opéra National de Toulouse, Opéra de Nîmes, Opéra National de Bordeaux, and Cologne.
Since 2005, alongside his singing career, he has also devoted himself to conducting, founding Gli Angeli Genève, with which he records one or two albums a year. Stephan MacLeod's discography as a singer and conductor includes over 100 CDs, many of which have been critically acclaimed. From 2013 to 2023, he was a singing professor at the Haute école de musique de Lausanne, and since 2023, he has been at the Haute école de musique de Genève. He balances his career between teaching, his singing engagements, his ensemble, and the growing demand for him as a conductor, particularly for conducting Bach and Mozart. He regularly conducts musicians from the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Philharmonie Zuidnederland, Nederlandse Bachvereniging, Pacific Baroque Orchestra, Purcell Choir, and Orfeo Orchestra, among others.
Learn more about Stephan Macleod
Cédric
Pescia
Professor of Piano
Born in Lausanne, holding Swiss and French nationality, Cédric Pescia studied at the Conservatories of Lausanne (with Christian Favre) and Geneva (with Dominique Merlet), at the Universität der Künste in Berlin (with Klaus Hellwig), and at the International Piano Academy Lake Como (with D. Bashkirov, L. Fleisher, A. Staier, W. G. Naboré, and Fou T’song). Additionally, he perfected his skills with P.-L. Aimard, D. Barenboim, D. Fischer-Dieskau, I. Gage, I. Gronich, C. Zacharias, and the Alban Berg Quartet.
He won the First Prize at the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition in 2002 in Salt Lake City, USA.
He gives recitals and concerts with orchestras in Europe, the USA, China, and South America: Philharmonie and Konzerthaus Berlin, Konzerthaus Vienna, Wigmore Hall London, Mozarteum Salzburg, Carnegie Hall New York, Shanghai Oriental Arts Center, Tonhalle Zurich, Prague Spring Festival, Lucerne Festival, Menuhin Festival Gstaad, Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, Davos Festival, Klavierfestival Ruhr. He has a long-standing collaboration with violinist Nurit Stark.
He is the artistic director of the chamber music series Ensemble enScène in Lausanne.
He is a laureate of the Leenaards Foundation in Lausanne and the Music Prize of the Vaud Foundation for Culture. For Claves Records, Aeon, BIS, Genuin, La Dolce Volta, he has recorded works by Bach, Beethoven, Schumann, Schubert, Couperin, Messiaen, Debussy, Cage, Busoni, Enescu, and Gubaidulina.
In 2012, he was appointed Professor of Piano at the Haute école de musique de Genève.
Learn more about Cédric Pescia
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.
Pierre
Fouchenneret
Professor of Violin
An insatiable artist with a discography of over twenty albums, Pierre Fouchenneret dedicates several years of his life to the works of a single composer, often surrounding himself with the finest chamber musicians to record a complete set. In 2016, he recorded the complete violin and piano sonatas of Beethoven with Romain Descharmes for Aparte. In 2018, the first volume of a complete set of Gabriel Fauré's chamber music was released, featuring Simon Zaoui and Raphaël Merlin. He also embarked on the ambitious project of performing all of Brahms' chamber music with the Strada Quartet, Eric Lesage, Florent Pujuila, Adrien Boisseau, and others. The complete set was released by B-Records during the 2018 to 2021 seasons. In the spring of 2020, his recording of Schubert and Raphaël Merlin's octets was released, featuring Nicolas Baldeyrou, David Guerrier, and Marc Desmons, among others.
A child prodigy, Pierre Fouchenneret won his first prize in violin and chamber music at the CNSM de Paris at the age of 16 in the classes of Olivier Charlier and Daria Hovora. He later won the Grand Prix at the International Chamber Music Competition of Bordeaux, the Grand Prix Georges Enesco from Sacem, and became a laureate of the Natixis Foundation and an associate artist of the Singer Polignac Foundation.
Invited to stages worldwide, the "extraordinary bow" (Le Figaro) of Pierre Fouchenneret quickly led him to perform with exceptional musicians such as the Fine Arts Quartet, Jean-François Heisser, Jean-Frédéric Neuburger, Zong Xu, Julien Leroy, and Nicolas Angelich. In 2013, he founded the Strada Quartet with Sarah Nemtanu, Lise Berthaud, and François Salque.
Pierre Fouchenneret is highly regarded by French and international orchestras for his boldness and vision of the repertoire. He has been invited by the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Suzhou Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre National de Bordeaux, the Brno Philharmonic, the Philharmonics of Nice and Strasbourg, the Baltic of Saint Petersburg, and the Orchestre de Chambre Nouvelle-Aquitaine.
A sought-after teacher, Pierre Fouchenneret is professor at the Haute Ecole de Musique in Geneva.
Learn more about Pierre Fouchenneret.
Charlotte
Perrey Beaude
Professor of Writing Practice - Cadence Writing - Music Theory
Charlotte Perrey began her musical studies with piano, quickly developing a strong inclination for improvisation and composition.
After studying in advanced mathematics classes, she fully devoted herself to music and specialized in writing under the guidance of Stéphane Delplace. She continued her studies at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris, where she earned First Prizes in Harmony, Counterpoint, 20th-21st Century Writing, Fugue and Forms, as well as the Marcel Dautremer Prize. She studied notably with Jean-François Zygel, Thierry Escaich, and Marc-André Dalbavie.
She currently teaches at the Haute école de musique de Lausanne and the Haute école de musique de Genève.
Axel
Schacher
Professeur de musique de chambre - quatuor à cordes
Born in 1981, Axel Schacher began studying the violin at the age of four. At the age of twelve, he won the Royaume de la Musique competition, organised by Radio France in Paris, and played E. Lalo's Spanish Symphony at the winners' concert, accompanied by the Republican Guard Orchestra. At the age of thirteen, he entered the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris in the class of Boris Garlitski.
In 1998, he was awarded the Prix de la Ville de Paris, and in 2000, he received his first prize with honours from the Conservatoire National de Musique de Paris. He was a prize winner at the Andrea Postacchini International Competition in 1998, then in 2000 he won second prize at the Tibor Varga International Competition, as well as special prizes for the best interpretation of Bach's work and Paganini's caprice. Since 2003, he has held the position of first violin soloist with the Basel Symphony Orchestra.
He taught chamber music at the Guildhall School of London from 2010 to 2015. For more than twelve years, he was a member of the Belcea Quartet, an internationally renowned ensemble that has been performing for almost thirty years in the most prestigious venues (Berlin Philharmonie, Wigmore Hall, Concertgebouw, Carnegie Hall, Boulez Saal,
Helbphilharmonie, Konzerthaus Wien) and with numerous musicians such as Tabea Zimmerman, Piotr Anderszerwski, Matthias Goerne, Jean Guihen Queyras, Antoine Tamestit, Martin Fröst, Elisabeth Leonska, Jorg Widmann and Ian Bostridge. The Belcea Quartet has recorded more than twenty-five albums, which have been acclaimed by the international press.
