SIMON SAVOY
pianist and countertenor
«Nantes réserve l'émotion inédite de superbes découvertes: le jeune pianiste suisse Simon Savoy, proprement miraculeux dans la Petite Messe solennelle de Rossini.»
www.la-croix.com, Emmanuelle Giuliani
«Et comment désormais réentendre cette œuvre sans se remémorer l’alto Simon Savoy? La tendresse ingénue et le timbre délicat de ce troublant et rare registre de sopraniste confère à cette longue supplique une candeur ineffable. Jamais l’expression touché par la grâce n’avait pris un tel sens.»
La Montagne, Roland Duclos
(cantate BWV 169 de Bach)
«Hier singt der Kontratenor Simon Savoy auf den Tasten.»
Klotener Anzeiger, René Kousz
(Duetto, Mendelssohn op. 36)
«Boris Fringeli et Simon Savoy ont notablement contribué à faire de ce «Requiem humain» une heure musicale aux climats intimes de musique de chambre.»
La Liberté, Daniel Fattore
(Ein deutsches Requiem, Brahms)
L'altus Simon Savoy dessine ave finesse les vocalises ornant la «force qui vient d'en-haut» opposée à la «croix trop lourde».
La Liberté, Maxime Grand
(Passions-Pasticcio, Carl Heinrich Graun)
«Das Wechselspiel zwischen feinen Klaviertönen, Streichern, Bläsern und Hornklängen gelang der Sinfonia und dem Solisten Simon Savoy gestern ausgezeichnet. [...] Savoy spielte gestern mit einer grossen Leichtigkeit und Klarheit.»
Badener Tagblatt, Andreas Fahrländer
(3. Klavierkonzert, Beethoven)
«Dans la magie de Noël, il y a des étoiles et samedi soir, il y en a une. Après le Kyrie, dans le silence du temple, s’élève une voix qui prend de l’ampleur et saisit le public, Simon Savoy chante l’Agnus Dei.»
Le Courrier de la Broye et du Jorat, Anne-Marie Nidrist
(Petite Messe Solennelle, Rossini)
«Le piano de Céline Latour et Simon Savoy garde ses distances tout en s'intégrant parfaitement.»
Le Quotidien Jurassien, Yvette Knoerle
(Ein deutsches Requiem, Brahms)
«Simon Savoy, sublime dans la peau du chanteur … de tête!»
Journal du Pays-d’Enhaut, Antonin Scherrer
(Lover man, Billie Holiday)
The Swiss pianist and counter-tenor Simon Savoy is a wide-ranging musician, who chooses to maintain diversity in his career, performing as a soloist, accompanist, chamber musician, chorister and teacher. His artistic roots go back to the choral tradition of the canton of Fribourg. He began by singing in the family circle and in children's choirs and discovered the piano at the age of eight. He studied piano in Fribourg and Zurich with Christine Slongo, Karl-Andreas Kolly and Johann Sonnleitner and singing with Nicole Fallien and Frédéric Faye in Paris, later finding a mentor in Michel Corboz. He worked with him from 2006 as a chorister in the Ensemble Vocal de Lausanne and as pianist in works such as Rossini's Petite Messe Solennelle, Brahms' Requiem and Dvořák's Stabat Mater.
Simon Savoy's recital programs are centered around the composers Schubert, Prokofjev, Rachmaninoff and Chopin. His broad repertoire as soloist covers not only piano concertos by Beethoven, Schumann, Grieg, Brahms, Rachmaninoff, Haydn, Gorecky and Britten (Young Apollo), but also vocal works such as Bach's Saint Matthew Passion, the cantata BWV 169 for alto solo or Buxtehudes' Membra Jesu Nostri. As an alto in ensembles and choirs, he has been able to develop the whole spectrum of his voice (countertenor), through composers such as Tallis, Byrd, Purcell, Lassus, Monteverdi, Scarlatti, Schütz, Gebel, Caplet, Pärt, Levinas or Schnittke.
Highlights of Simon Savoy's past performances include concerts with the Wiener Concert-Verein (at the Musikverein Wien), the Orchestre d'Auvergne, the Sinfonischen Blasorchester Helvetia Rüti-Tann, the Orchester inTakt, the Sinfonisches Orchester Arbon, the Orchestre de Chambre de Genève, the Cappella Amsterdam, the choir of the Gulbenkian Foundation Lisbon and the Bachstiftung St. Gallen. He has worked with conductors such as Kristiina Poska, Daniel Reuss, Arie van Beek, Gábor Takács-Nagy, Rudolf Lutz, Andreas Brenner, Guillaume Tourniaire, Laurent Gendre, John Duxbury, Leo Gschwend and Thomas Trachsel.
In addition to his concerts in Switzerland, Simon Savoy regularly performs abroad. Numerous tours and guest performances have taken him to Vienna, Tokyo, Rome, Amsterdam, Paris, Deauville, Nantes or Leiria as well as to festivals such as the Ravinia Festival in Chicago, La Folle Journée festivals in Nantes, Bilbao and Tokyo, the Festival de la Cité Lausanne, the Festival Bach en Combrailles, the Festival du Haut Limousin and the piano festival La Roque d'Anthéron. Several of his live broadcasts have been released on CD.