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The Swiss soprano/mezzo-soprano, Marie-Hélène Essade, studied piano and singing at the Conservatoire de Musique de Lausanne, where she won first prize for virtuosity singing with congratulations of the Jury. Prize-winner of the Kiefer-Hablitzel Foundation and a grant from the l’Association suisse des Musiciens (Swiss Association of Musicians), she then perfected at the Conservatoire de Genève with Maria Diaconu, followed by master-classes with Hugues Cuénod, Eric Tappy, Anthony Rolfe-Johnson and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. As a professional member of the Ensemble Vocal de Lausanne (Director: Michel Corboz), she performed in many concerts, recordings and tours first as a chorister and soloist and will be regularly called upon to sing under his direction (Mass in C by W.A. Mozart, Monteverdi Vespers). Engagement of two years at the Chicago Lyric Opera House, gave her the ioportunity to perfect her singing at the same time under the direction of Barabara Pearson.
Marie-Hélène Essade then went to Rome and sang under the direction of Flavio Colusso, Carissimi specialist, and his Baroque instrumental ensemble Seicentonovecento. She performs regularly on stage in Switzerland, the Lausanne Opera in particular, as well as abroad. She sings under the direction of conductors such as Véronique Véronique Carrot, Simon Ott, Christophe Gesseney, E. Pomerico, Laurent Gay, Luc Baghdassarian, Gyorgi Györivany Rath, Christian Thielemann, Christophe Rousset.
Marie-Hélène Essade's repertoire touches the oratorio (Charpentier, J.S. Bach, George Frideric Handel, W.A. Mozart, Antonio Vivaldi, Camille Saint-Saëns, Robert Schumann, Maurice Duruflé, L.v. Beethoven, etc.), the opera (where her roles on stage have have included Cherubino in W.A. Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, Lehrbube in R. Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, L’Ecureuil, La Chatte and La Bergère in Ravel's L'enfant et les sortilèges, Mathurine in Glück's L’Ivrogne corrigé, Offenbach's La Péricholee, Bélise in Lully's Roland, etc.) and contemporary music (Ligeti, Béla Bartók, Luciano Berio, etc.) within the soloists of the Ensemble Séquence (Director: Laurent Gay). She recorded Igor Stravinsky's Mass with the Orchestra of the Amadeus Festival, conducted by Laurent Gay (Dinemec), Lully's opera Roland with Les Talens Lyriques conducted by Christophe Rousset (Naïve) and three German Baroque Cantatas CD with the ensemble Gli Angeli Genève, of which she is a member, conducted by Stephan MacLeod (Sony).
Alongside his activities solistiques, Marie-Hélène Essade is tutor in the HEM de Lausanne for Masters of Arts in Pedagogy, Professor of singing at the Ecole de Musique de Cossonay as well as privately as a SSPM member. She ia a trainer in the AVCD (Association vaudoise des chefs de chœurs) is regularly called upon to collaborate with the choir directors, including the Chœur universitaire de Lausanne. |
