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.

Biography