Piano accompaniment

As a crossroads for instrument classes and singing classes, the piano accompaniment class at the Haute école de musique de Genève (HEM) provide fertile ground for musical exchange.

A place of sharing, encounters and confrontation, it offers our students the chance to develop their taste for chamber music and gives them the opportunity to think about the options when it comes to a performance. It also makes it possible to discover an infinite repertoire by exploring every facet of the instrument.

The piano accompaniment course prepares the students for a professional career, either in the concert repertoire, or in the opera repertoire. All the first-year students take the same classes and work on both repertoires. In particular, they take classes in diction, sight-reading, ensemble classes, etc.

In the second year, the students concentrate on their specific field: accompaniment, which covers instrumental and vocal recitals, or the conducting of singing, made up solely of the opera repertoire, and including, notably, participation in a production by the Grand Théâtre de Genève.

Throughout the duration of the course, the opportunities to play in public are many and varied, whether at the HEM, or through participation in the rich musical life of the Geneva region, as part of concerts, festivals, and private soirees, but also by giving private classes.

Teachers

Emmanuel Olivier

Professeur d'accompagnement au piano instrumental et vocal

Emmanuel Olivier performs as a soloist and with numerous singers and instrumentalists at the Auditorium du Musée d'Orsay, the BNF and the Cité de la Musique in Paris, at the Montpellier and Aix festivals, at the opera houses of Lille, Toulouse and Tours, as well as throughout Europe and Asia. At the same time, his collaboration with great conductors such as Altinoglu, De Billy, Eschenbach, Eötvös, Gardiner, Haïm, Harding, Nelson and Roth naturally led him to conduct operas (Mozart, Strasnoy, Puccini, Hahn, Vaughan Williams, etc.). A long and fruitful partnership with Jean-Claude Malgoire led him to conduct La Grande Écurie et la Chambre du Roy on numerous occasions, in works by Gluck (with Philippe Jarrousky), Mozart, Rossini and Poulenc (La Voix humaine with Véronique Gens). After studying at the Paris Conservatoire, he became an assistant professor of vocal accompaniment there. He has given several masterclasses on the French repertoire at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing and at the Musikhochschule in Karlsruhe. He has also taught at Royaumont, the CNSM in Lyon, the Universität für Musik in Vienna, the Opéra Studio de l'Opéra du Rhin and the OperAvenir studio in Basel, as well as at the Académie Européenne du Festival d'Aix-en-Provence. His discography includes ‘J'aurai voulu être une chanteuse’, ‘Le cœur en forme de fraise’ and ‘Qu'as-tu fait de ta jeunesse’ with Carl Ghazarossian (Hortus‌), ‘Soir païen’ with Alexis Kossenko and Anna Reinhold (Aparté), and ‘French songs’ by Lou Koster with Vincent Lièvre-Picard (AR RE-SE).

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.