Marie-Cécile Chevassus Mezzo

Season 24/25 Artist – Chorus of the Opera

Marie-Cécile Chevassus first studied piano and violin for ten years or so before turning to singing. She studied music at the François Rabelais University in Tours obtaining her D.E.U.G. in 1986 and graduating in 1987. She also qualified as a teacher of Music in 1988. During this period she extended her vocal practice to include a broad range of styles from ancient music, Boni and Palestrina for example, and Baroque music to contemporary music in the Minimilist style. She chose to turn from teaching to devote herself fully to her vocation as a singer, which she pursued first at Nantes Opera then at the Rhine Opera in Strasbourg. In 1995 and 1996, she was awarded second prize at both the Béziers and the Alès competitions and was a finalist in the Belvedere International Competition in Vienna in 1996. Since 1995, she has been a member of the Paris Opera Chorus where she regularly performs as a soloist in roles such as A Cretan Woman in Idomeneo, The Page in Lohengrin, Sister Gertrude in Dialogues des carmélites, a Celestial Spirit in The Damnation of Faust conducted by Seiji Ozawa and Fekloucha in Kátia Kabanová. She has also performed in a vocal quartet in the “Jeudi Musicaux” concert series and in a programme of German Romantic music in June 2014.