Yannis François

Yannis François, Bass-Baritone / Dancer Born in Guadeloupe, Yannis François began is carrer as a dancer. In 2000 he entered the ÉcoleAtelier Rudra Béjart in Lausanne and later became a member of the Béjart Ballet. During the singing lessons which are a part of the École Rudra, Maurice Béjart was impressed by Yannis' voice and encouraged him to fully explore a singing career parallel to the ballet. In june 2010 he was graduated in his master's degree at the Conservatoire de Lausanne where his teacher is Gary Magby. On the opera stage,Yannis has sung the title-role in Le Nozze di Figaro by Mozart, Curio in Giulio Cesare with Andreas Scholl (Ottavio Dantone) at the Opera of Lausanne, Peter Quince in Midsummer night's dream (Théâtre du jorat, Elsa Naouri-Rooke). Other operactic roles include: Don Alfonso in Cosi fan tutte (Concert version, Jesús López Cobos), Seneca in L'incoronazione di Poppea (BFM Geneva, François Rochaix, Leonardo García Alarcón), Nettuno and dancer in La Liberazione di Ruggiero by Francesa Caccini (Victorial Hall, Gabriel Garrido), Radamanto and dancer in Peri's Euridice (L'Arpeggiata, Christina Pluhar) and in September 2010 the title role in Don Giovanni. In 2012 he was Melisso in Alcina by Händel and then Bass solo in The Fairy Queen by Purcell with the European Union Baroque Orchestra under the baton of Paul Agnew. In 2013 he has been selected for the 3rd Baroque Academy of Jordi Savall, and for the 20th Académie Baroque d'Ambronay in which he will sing in october 2013, the role of Plutone in L'Orfeo by Monteverdi under the direction of Leonardo García Alarcón, he was also chosen for the role of Sedecia at the world staged premiere of La Caduta Gierusalemme di Giovanni Paolo Colonna at Festival Opera Barga in july 2013. In 2014 he was in La Pellegrina at Opéra de Dijon and the role of Le Pirée in the operetta Phi-Phi at the Opéra de Lausanne in summer 2014. His upcoming productions are the roles of Céphée, Phinée and Sténone in Persée by Lully in Antwerp and the role of Isacius in Richardus I by Telemann/Händel in Stadttheater Giessen conducted by Michael Hosftetter.
Yannis is also interested in Oratorio, Chamber Music, and Contemporary Music. Among the works which he has performed: La Susanna of Scarlatti (Giorgio Paronuzzi), Bass solo in Bach's Weinachts-Oratorium, in Bach's and Haendel's Johannes-Passion (Ton Koopman, Yves Corboz), Bass solo in Mozart's Requiem and Das Paradies und die Peri by Schumann, Ravel's Chansons Madécasses, To cast a shadow again of Eric Ewazen, Le Fou d'Elsa of Laurent Petitgirard. He creates the title-role in Jekyll by Raoul Lay and Ensemble Télémaque in Marseille and sang the title-role in the extraordinary monodrama by Peter Maxwell Davies: Eight Songs for a Mad King.
To maintain his internal movement he continues to perform dancing engagements: i.e. The Ugly Duckling and Blummenkabarett (Cie Buissonni?re Cisco Aznar), Purgatoire of Shahrokh Moshkhin Ghalam and as solo dancer and singer in Dido and Aeneas and Amours baroques/Monteverdi (Opera of Lausanne, BFM in Geneva with Gabriel Garrido, Noemi Lapzeson), Deserting Las Vegas with Eternal Tour in New-York, Santa Fe, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Rup_tures by Léna Blou in november 2014 in Guadeloupe and Martinique.
Given his passion for forgotten music, Yannis is bulding a library of baroque and early classical scores and manuscripts.