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.

Susanne Schimmack

Professor of Voice

« A triumph... Schimmack shows herself to be absolutely up to Richard Strauss’s murderous Elektra. This is first class! » — Die Deutsche Bühne The « Rolls Royce » of Voices - BBC « The luxurious-sounding German singer Susanne Schimmack... dominates the performance through her noble phrasing, her intelligent role portrayal and her excellent French diction. » — Opéra « A voice of luxury and power. » — The London Times From the prestigious stage of the ‚Cardiff Singer of the World‘ to her distinguished faculty position at the Haute École de Musique de Genève, Susanne Schimmacks career is a masterclass in vocal evolution. Transitioning from alto to a powerhouse dramatic soprano, she has performed with the world’s leading companies, including Théatre Royal de La Monnaie, Brussels, Royal Danish Opera Copenhagen, Nationaltheater Mannheim, Frankfurt Opera, Arizona Opera, Opera Pacific, USA as well as the Budapest Spring Festival, Musikfestspiele Dresden, and more. Her artistry has taken her across the globe, collaborating with masters like Antonio Pappano and Sir Peter Hall. Likewise, Susanne has established a reputation for excellence in the intimate world of Lied and Oratorio. With a repertoire spanning the great works of Wagner, Strauss, and Verdi, Susanne Schimmack has brought nearly 90 operatic roles to life. Signature roles include Turandot, Kundry, Carmen, Strauss’ Marschallin, Berlioz Cassandre. Her operatic journey reached a pinnacle with the portrayal of Richard Strauss’s Elektra, a performance hailed for its "darkly brooding soprano" and "bravura" execution of one of the most vocally grueling roles in the repertoire. As Professeure de Chant at the Haute école de musique de Genève (HEM), Susanne Schimmack offers a rare pedagogical approach: Active Mentorship. Drawing from her own remarkable vocal journey, Susanne Schimmack offers students a unique technical, anatomically informed perspective on vocal training and artistic development. Remaining an active force on stage, Susanne frequently performs alongside her students in HEM productions and concerts. This immersive mentorship serves as a professional anchor, ensuring the highest standard of artistic integrity and stagecraft and creating opportunity for organic transition from studio to spotlight. Learn more about Susanne Schimmack

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.

Jean-Pierre Berry

Professeur de cor a.i.

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.

Philippe Spiesser

Professor of Percussion - Chamber Music with Percussion - Coordinator of the Percussion Class

More than just a percussionist, Philippe Spiesser is an atypical and captivating musician. Coming from a family of musicians, he studied percussion at the Conservatoire de Musique de Strasbourg. Winner of the European Young Talents Competition in 1997, he has continually evolved by embracing new experiences and collaborating with creators from diverse backgrounds. A universally recognized pedagogue, Philippe Spiesser has been a professor of percussion and coordinator of the percussion class at the Haute école de musique de Genève (HEM) since 2009. Previously, he taught at the Alfonso X University in Madrid, the Conservatorio Superior de Música de Palma de Mallorca, and the Conservatoire National de Région de Perpignan. He gives numerous masterclasses around the world: Juilliard School in New York, McGill in Montreal, Royal Academy of Music in London, Esmuc in Barcelona, Royal Conservatory in Brussels, Santa Cecilia in Rome, Musikhochschulen in Stuttgart, Mannheim, and Karlsruhe, CNSMDP in Paris, China Conservatory and Central Conservatory in Beijing, Superior Conservatories in Shanghai, Shenyang, and Dalian, Hong Kong University of Music, Lima University of Music, and Izmir University of Music. Since 2012, Philippe Spiesser has led several research projects on new musical technologies and gesture capture, such as the GeKiPe project developed at HEM in partnership with IRCAM Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Ensemble Flashback. Through this work, he is the dedicatee and performer of numerous immersive and multimedia shows written for this gesture capture tool. In 2022, he created "Virtualis," the new concerto for solo percussion, ensemble, video, and gesture capture using the Gestrument tool, invented and developed by Jesper Nordin. His research has also led him to work with the Centro Ricerche Musicali in Rome, where he developed a solo repertoire with two acoustic instruments, the SkinAct and the Feed Drum, treated electronically and invented by Michelangelo Lupone. A polymorphic musician, he performs worldwide in numerous international festivals such as Electronic Music Week in Shanghai, Percussion Festival in Beijing, Música in Lima, Arte Scienza and RomaEuropa in Rome, Ars Musica in Brussels, Musica in Strasbourg, Présences in Paris, Ritmo Vital in Madrid, Gaida Festival in Vilnius, Italy PAS in Pescara, CERN Festival and Archipel in Geneva, Aujourd’hui Musiques in Perpignan, Memmix in Palma de Mallorca, Ponte in Ulm, and Frequenz in Kiel, where he promotes new repertoire and creations by Ph. Hurel, P. Jodlowski, J. Nordin, A. Schubert, M. Matalon, B. Mantovani, Ph. Manoury, B. Letort, K. Narita, JM. Lopez Lopez, M. Lupone, and A. Vert. Philippe Spiesser is also invited to perform as a soloist with orchestras such as Lemanic Modern Ensemble, Norbotten NEO, Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra, Camerata de France, Beijing Symphony Orchestra, and Shenyang Symphony Orchestra. He serves as a jury member for numerous international competitions, including Shanghai IPEA, Beijing PAS, Palma IMC, Italy PAS, and was the president of the jury for the International Geneva Competition in 2019. Learn more about Philippe Spiesser

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.

Stefan Prins

Professor of electroacoustic and mixed composition

Stefan Prins will take up his post in September 2026 Stefan Prins (Belgium, 1979) is a composer and performer whose music often includes and reflects on contemporary technologies and new media, thematizing their relationship with the physical, performing body and the environments it inhabits. After graduating as an engineer, he studied piano, composition and music technology at the Conservatories of Flanders (Antwerp), Brussels and The Hague. In 2017 he obtained a PhD in composition at Harvard University under the guidance of Chaya Czernowin and Hans Tutschku. He received many international awards such as the “Kunstpreis Berlin für Musik”, “Kranichsteiner Musikpreis für Komposition” or the “ISCM Young Composers Award”. His music is performed worldwide on festivals such as the Donaueschinger Musiktage, Darmstadt Ferienkurse, Wittener Tage für Neue Musik, Eclat, Warsaw Autumn, Ultraschall Berlin, Wien Modern, Gaudeamus Festival, Tzlil Meudcan, Impuls Festival, Rainy Days Festival, Transit & Ultima Festival. He has collaborated closely with Nadar Ensemble – of which he is artistic co-director, Klangforum Wien, Nikel Ensemble, Ensemble Mosaik, Ensemble Recherche, Ensemble Modern, Trio Accanto, Arditti Quartet, MusikFabrik, Orchestre Philharmonique de Luxembourg & BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, and soloists such as Yaron Deutsch, Stephane Ginsburgh, Rei Nakamura, Florentin Ginot, Severine Ballon & Ning Yu. His music has been released on the labels Sub Rosa, Kairos, Wergo and Neos. Prins also performs regularly in the improvised music scene (electronics), amongst others with Yaron Deutsch in the Ministry of Bad Decisions. He taught at Academies such as the Darmstadt Summercourses, Impuls Academy or Syntetis Academy, was guest-professor at the Norwegian Academy of Music Oslo & HK Bern and has served as a professor of composition and director of the Hybrid Music Lab at the Hochschule für Musik Dresden from 2020-2026. Stefan Prins Website  

Bertrand Chatenet

Professor of Horn

Born in 1990 in Paris, Bertrand Chatenet began learning the horn with Patrice Petitdidier at the Conservatoire de Gennevilliers, then with Jérome Rouillard (horn), Paul Meyer, and Eric Lesage (wind quintet). In 2009, he studied alongside Erich Penzel, Christian Lampert, and Christoph Ess at the Musikhochschule in Stuttgart, and in 2013 with Christian-Friedrich Dallmann and Sebastian Posch at the Berlin University of the Arts. Since 2010, he has mainly performed as a soloist with major orchestras such as the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra (SWR), the Bavarian State Opera Orchestra, and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin. He is currently the principal horn of the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra and an assistant professor at the UDK in Berlin. Learn more about Bertrand Chatenet.

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