The Odyssey Begins

Migros Change Rive
Rue de Rive 20 – 1204 Genève
Monday to Friday: 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Saturday: 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

The vocalists of Chœur Pro Arte work diligently to bring a wide range of repertoire to audiences, whether a cappella, orchestral or accompanied by piano or organ.

Musical exploration is an integral part of this ensemble, which interprets both well-known and obscure works, and often puts the spotlight on contemporary Swiss composers. Pro Arte performs regularly with the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, Sinfonietta and Ensemble Baroque de Léman, as well as the ensembles of Pierre Amoyal and organist Benjamin Righetti. Although it primarily performs in the French-speaking part of Switzerland, it has also appeared on stages elsewhere in Switzerland and abroad, including a 2018 concert in Kazan, Russia.

Pro Arte’s mission is to share great music with as many people as possible, often participating in innovative projects and performing in non-traditional settings. The ensemble has put on concerts for disabled people at Association La Branche in Mollie-Margot and teamed up with the children’s choir of Cossonay’s École de Musique to sing Christmas songs and Frank Martin’s Mass for Double Choir. It has also taken part in the Paléo festival in Nyon, serenading a crowd of thousands with Rossini’s Stabat Mater, as well as free open-air concerts in Lausanne and Montreux, where it performed Mozart’s Requiem, accompanied by four accordionists.

Pro Arte not only seeks out new audiences but also promotes little-known, often challenging works. Recently, the ensemble brought together Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’s Magnificat with the Requiem by his brother, Johann Christian Bach. In 2017, it performed Arthur Honegger’s Nicolas de Flüe in honour of the 600th birthday of the work’s namesake, Nicholas of Flüe, the patron saint of Switzerland. In 2018, Pro Arte celebrated Julien François Zbinden’s 100th anniversary with a concert featuring the composer’s oratorio, Terra dei.

Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, Pro Arte continued to perform, collaborating with the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne to present the cantatas from Johann Sebastian Bach’s Christmas Oratorio at the Lausanne cathedral in 2020. It also participated in the latest edition of Le Mont musical festival with Johannes Brahms’ A German Requiem.

The 2022-2023 season marks Pro Arte’s 75^th anniversary. Concerts include the performance of a work commissioned from Lausanne-born composer Valentin Villard, based on texts by Stephane Blok and Blaise Hoffman, at the Théâtre du Jorat in Mézières, alongside the Sinfonietta.

Notable orchestral collaborators include Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, all the British and German radio orchestras, Berliner Philharmoniker, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Orchestre National de France, Orquesta Nacional de España as well as The Cleveland Orchestra, and Philadelphia, Boston and Chicago symphony orchestras, under conductors such as Christoph von Dohnányi, Kurt Masur, Klaus Mäkelä, Christian Thielemann, Simone Young, Susanna Mälkki, Vladimir Jurowski and Andris Nelsons.

Alongside an extensive repertoire comprising all the core concertos, Gerhardt is also the go-to soloist for contemporary composers. Most recently, he premiered Julian Anderson’s Grawemeyer Award-winning cello concerto, Litanies, with Orchestre National de France, as well as Brett Dean’s Cello Concerto which he premiered with Sydney Symphony Orchestra and Berliner Philharmoniker, and played with New York Philharmonic, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and London Philharmonic Orchestra amongst others.

Highlights in the 2023/24 season include Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin with Marin Alsop, Gürzenich-Orchester Köln with Susanna Mälkki, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra with Andrew Manze, and Sydney Symphony Orchestra with Simone Young.

A prolific recording artist, Gerhardt has received several awards for his recordings including an ECHO Klassik Award in 2008 for Reger: Cello Sonatas with Markus Becker under Hyperion, a BBC Music Magazine Award in 2015 for his recording of Unsuk Chin’s Cello Concerto with Myung-Whun Chung and Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra under Deutsche Grammophon (for which he was also shortlisted for a Gramophone Award), and an International Classical Music Award in 2021 for Shostakovich: Cello Concertos with WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln and Jukka-Pekka Saraste under Hyperion.

Also a keen chamber musician, Gerhardt regularly performs with pianist Steven Osborne amongst others. Recent years have seen him collaborate on new artistic projects, such as ’Love in Fragments’ – a poetic union of music, movement, sculpture and spoken word – with violinist Gergana Gergova, choreographer Sommer Ulrickson, and sculptor Alexander Polzin.

Gerhardt will continue such collaborations throughout the 2023/24 season, appearing as Artist in Focus at Aldeburgh Festival and in Duisburger Philharmoniker’s Kammerkonzerte series with Alliage Quintett as he takes up the mantle of Duisburger Philharmoniker’s Artist in Residence for the season.

Gerhardt is passionate about sharing his discoveries with audiences far beyond the traditional concert hall, undertaking outreach projects across Europe and the US that have involved performances and workshops not only in schools and hospitals, but also public spaces and young offender institutions. Additionally, he has a strong online presence, teaching and interacting regularly with cello students worldwide through Patreon.

Alban Gerhardt plays a Matteo Gofriller cello dating from 1710.

She began her solo career during her studies, making her debut in Asia (Bhutan) in 2018, in the role of Serpina (La serva padrona, Pergolesi), a production by the Opéra de Lausanne given on the occasion of the inauguration of the Royal Textile Academy of Thimphu. She was soon engaged at the Grand Théâtre de Genève (Blumenmädchen in Parsifal - Wagner), at the Opéra Grand Avignon (Mélusine in Les Chevaliers de la table ronde - Hervé), and in March 2022, she made her Paris debut on the stage of the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées as Despina in Così fan tutte (Mozart), in the new production directed by Laurent Pelly and conducted by Emmanuelle Haïm (Le Concert d'Astrée), which then traveled to Caen. Shortly afterwards, she was engaged at the Glyndebourne Festival (UK) to understudy the role of Thérèse in Poulenc's Les Mamelles de Tirésias. She returned to the Opéra de Lausanne stage in October 2022, making her debut as Adina in L'Elisir d'amore (Donizetti). Following this, the Glyndebourne Festival invited her to make her stage debut as Giannetta and understudy Adina in L'Elisir d'amore (Donizetti) during the 2023 season. Prior to this, she returned to the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, then to the Opéra National de Bordeaux and Rouen to play Clorinda, between January and April 2023, in a production for young audiences of La Cenerentola (Rossini).

Her career has also been marked by significant events outside the theaters and concert halls. In 2016, she took part in the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games with the Swiss premiere given at the House of Switzerland during the opening week of the Games. She then performed the solo part of the Nations League anthem for UEFA at the competition's launch ceremony in 2018. On a national level (in Switzerland), she was also invited to perform at the installation and swearing-in ceremony for the new authorities of the canton of Vaud in 2022.

She won the 1st prize of the Kattenburg competition in 2019 at the Opéra de Lausanne and the 2nd prize of the Corsica Lirica competition in 2021. She created her own show, Odyssée Onirique, which premiered at the BCV Concert Hall in Lausanne in 2021, and also released her first album, Incitation au voyage - parfums, couleurs et sonorités d'ailleurs in 2019, both of which reflect her Latin origins, which she loves to combine with her operatic career.

The milestones of her career have included Idomeneo (Idamante) staged and conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt in Graz and Zurich, Paisiello’s Il Matrimonio Inaspettato (Contessa) under Riccardo Muti at Salzburg Festival, La Damnation de Faust (Marguerite) under Sir Roger Norrington in Leipzig, and L’incoronazione di Poppea (Ottavia) at the Berlin State Opera and at La Monnaie in Brussels, one of her numerous collaborations with René Jacobs. Chappuis has been acclaimed for her performances in the title role of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas throughout Europe. She is featured at Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Theater an der Wien, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, Teatro alla Scala, Teatro Real in Madrid and Grand Théâtre de Genève.

She is coequally active on concert-stage having recently performed with the Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Giardino Armonico, the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the Wiener Philharmoniker.

Her discography includes several recordings with René Jacobs (Harmonia Mundi) and the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra: La Clemenza di Tito, La finta giardinera, and Mozart’s Requiem. Other recordings with Jacobs and the Akademie für alte Musik Berlin and the RIAS Kammerchor include Bach’s B-Minor Mass and Telemann’s Brockes-Passion (Harmonia Mundi). Additional recordings include Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony conducted by Giovanni Antonini (Sony) and Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with Riccardo Chailly (Decca). Solo albums include “Sous l'empire d'Amour” (Deutsche Harmonia Mundi 2017) with lutenist Luca Pianca, and “Au coeur des Alpes” (Sony Classical 2018) with songs from Switzerland. Last releases include  a new recording of Clérambault’s Les Fables de La Fontaine (B-Records) with Valentin Tournet and La Chapelle Harmonique, and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony (Dynamic) with Zubin Mehta and Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.^ème symphonie de Beethoven CD et DVD sous la direction de Zubin Mehta ( Dynamic)