Singing

More specifically, in my singing lessons, I focus on developing the vocal instrument, the artistic personality, exploring the repertoire and acquiring the various interpretation tools specific to each genre and period.
In my technical work, I attach great importance to developing the voice to optimise the fullness of its timbre, while respecting each person's vocal identity. I take care to cultivate its flexibility, so that it can adapt as well as possible to each repertoire tackled. While maintaining a holistic approach, we work together with the student on specific aspects of posture (borrowing in particular from the F.-M. Alexander technique), breathing (optimal inhalation, control of flow and pressure on exhalation), phonation (laryngeal flexibility, resonance spaces, homogeneity of registers and vowels), flexible and relaxed use of the tongue, economy of jaw movement, and so on. More specifically to the pre-1800 repertoires, we explore the different types of ornamentation (trillo battuto, gruppo, ribattuta di gola, temulo sul punto, tremble appuyé, tremblement lié, etc.), agility (gorgia, coloratura, etc.), and register management, for example in the case of more specific tessituras (haute-contre à la française, homogenisation of head voice and chest voice for a falsettist, etc.).

While the core of the repertoire studied is that from before 1800 - mainly from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries - forays into the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first centuries are encouraged. We work on the right vocal and musical gesture for each style, focusing on the historical context, the relationship between text and music, rhetorical understanding, etc., in the light of the primary and secondary sources relevant to each repertoire. We also explore historically informed pronunciations of French, English and Latin, ornamentation and Baroque gestures. As a harpsichordist, harpist and lutenist, I attach great importance to the relationship between singing and basso continuo; as head of the lute class, I develop synergies between the two classes.
As well as weekly individual and group singing lessons, I attach great importance to 'in situ' experience (projects, concerts, public performances), and when the student is 'ready', I help them to make contact with the artistic world and to integrate into it: auditions for an ensemble leader, a professional integration project, a competition, an opera house, an artistic agent, etc. Teamwork is one of the strengths of the Conservatoire's teaching staff, and I work hand in hand with my colleagues in the early music department and the singing section. Students in the early music singing class also benefit from working with an assistant or lecturer from the singing department.