Axelle Fanyo
French soprano Axelle Fanyo “does not only embody a character, she tells us the story. She clearly cultivates the art of communication, which gives her singing another dimension.” (Forum Opera) and is making her mark on both the opera world and in concert halls with her eclectic curiosity and “charismatic, beautiful voice [of] real star quality.” (Renée Fleming) With multiple accolades including the 2021 Nadia and Lili Boulanger Competition grand prize, prestigious Kaleidoscope prize and the Young Artist prize at the International French Song competition, Axelle is without a doubt an artist on the rise.
After studying musicology at the Sorbonne and winning awards as a violinist at the Conservatoire La Courneuve, Axelle Fanyo studied at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris (CNSMDP) with Glenn Chambers and obtained her Master’s Diploma. She also took part in the lyric workshop Opera Fuoco, led by David Stern, and was a member of Renée Fleming’s Song Studio at Carnegie Hall in 2019. The Deutsche Grammophon label invited her to make her first solo recordings (with repertoire including Weill, Ravel and Bolcom) within their Rising Star programme, and she was named as a Rising Star for the 2023/24 season in the European Concert Hall Organisation (ECHO) programme, through which she gave a recital tour of around fifteen dates across major European venues including Vienna’s Musikverein, London’s Barbican, Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, the Philharmonie de Paris and Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw. In July 2024 she sang the Olympic Anthem for the opening ceremony of the International Olympic Committee at the Louis Vuitton Salon in Paris.
The 2024/25 season includes her debuts as Madame Lidoine in Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites at the Opéra de Rouen Normandie, Massenet’s Thais at the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos in Lisbon, and performances of Tosca across France with Théâtre Imperial de Compiègne, following her acclaimed role debut there in 2023. This season, Axelle’s recital appearances will see her perform at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw’s Mahler Festival with pianist Julius Drake, and London’s Wigmore Hall with Kunal Lahiry.
In recent seasons, her debut roles include Verdi’s Luisa Miller at the Opéra Grand Avignon and the Mother in the world premiere of Hèctor Parra’s opera Justice at the Grand Théâtre de Genève. Notably, featuring at the Philharmonie de Paris in the title role of Debussy’s La Damoiselle élue with Orchestre de Paris, conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen, Axelle was invited by Salonen to sing the role of Refka in Kaija Saariaho’s opera Adriana Mater with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra at Davies Symphony Hall, staged by Peter Seller.
Axelle recently won her first Grammy in this year’s 67th Grammy awards for the Best Opera recording under this role of Refka in Kaija Saariaho Adriana Mater (Deutsche Grammophon). Later this season, she will feature once again and reprise this role as it transfers to the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma.
She has also performed with Hervé Niquet and his baroque ensemble Le Concert Spirituel in the comedy ballet Le Malade Imaginaire by Molière/Charpentier in the role of Flore, and the role of La Baronne in the lyrical comedy Les Aventures du Baron de Münchausen created at the Théâtre Imperial in Compiègne then on tour in France. With Christophe Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques she sang the role of Juno in La Divisione del Mondo by Legrenzi at the Cologne Philharmonie, the role of Pulcheria in Pallavicino’s Le amazzoni nell’isole fortunate. Her repertoire has also included Fourth Maid in Elektra at Opera de Toulouse and Leila in John Adams’ I was Looking at the Ceiling and then I saw the Sky at Opera de Lyon, and roles in Martín y Soler’s We are Eternal at Opéra de Massy.
In concert Axelle Fanyo has been heard in Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem and Mahler’s Ruckert lieder with the Orchestre Les Siècles and in repertoire ranging from Respighi’s Il tramonto, Strauss’ Vier Letzte Lieder and Poulenc’s La Dame de Monte-Carlo. She performs in recital with pianists such as Julius Drake, Tanguy de Williencourt, Kunal Lahiry, and Adriano Spampanato, in venues such as the Wigmore Hall, La Seine Musicale, the Orangerie du Parc Bagatelle, Festival des Nuits Romantiques, Opéra Comique and the Musée d ‘Orsay. Her recordings include Saint-Saens’ Les Mélodies Persanes for Palazzetto Bru Zane with the Orchestre de Capitole de Toulouse, conducted by Leo Hussain, and several melodies of Henri Duparc for B Records, in association with l’Académie Orsay-Royaumont.
Kunal Lahiry
Indian-American pianist Kunal Lahiry is a former BBC New Generation Artist and recipient of the 2021 Carl Bechstein Foundation scholarship. Recent performance highlights include at the Wigmore Hall, Musikverein Vienna, Elbphilharmonie, Gulbenkian, Théâtre de l’Athenee, Tippett Rise and Konzerthaus Berlin. In June 2023, Kunal curated a ‘Queer Song Festival’ at St. George’s in Bristol, which was broadcasted by BBC Radio 3. He has also been heard on Icelandic National Public Radio RÁS1, Austrian Radio Ö1, RBB Kultur, and was featured on ARTE’s ‘Hope@Home’ and ‘Europe@Home’ series hosted by violinist Daniel Hope. This season includes appearances at the Wigmore Hall, Boulez Saal, Concertgebouw as well as tour in the USA Massachusetts, San Francisco, Washington DC, Boston and New York (Carnegie Hall).
Kunal has commissioned and premiered works by Nico Muhly, Errollyn Wallen, Nahre Sol, Heloise Werner, Alex Ho, Kian Ravaei Molly Joyce, Lyra Pramuk Viktor Orri Árnason, Guðmundur Emilsson, Zachary Radler, Zubaida Azezi, and Edo Frenkel. He is currently in the process of a long commission project to create a trans*Winterreise — taking the dramatic scope and psychological landscape of Schubert/Wilhelm Müller’s song cycle and reimagining it as a contemporary narrative for the queer identity and journey; a cycle of 24 new songs by queer poets and composers which speak specifically from this perspective. He received grants from the Musikfonds and the Center for Musical Excellence to finance and co-produce an interdisciplinary video project entitled ‘Homescapes’ with Icelandic soprano and visual artist Álfheiður Erla Guðmundsdóttir, and created a music video with Boomtown Media Productions exploring queerness in classical music through the support of the Liedzentrum Heidelberg. In 2022, Kunal was invited to create a conceptual, interdisciplinary song recital for Heidelberger Frühling Festival “Lied.LAB”, which he called ‘Sleep Cycle of an Insomniac’.
Kunal has been invited to several young artist programs for pianists specializing in art song. In 2018, he was selected for the inaugural Royaumont-Orsay Academy, culminating in a live album recording released by B Records. He also joined the first Song Studio, mentored by Renee Fleming, at Carnegie Hall, was invited by Thomas Hampson to participate in the Heidelberg Lied Academy, and received the Sam Hutchings prize at Malcolm Martineau’s Oxenfoord international Summer School.
Originally from Gainesville, Georgia, Kunal was a Schulich Scholar at McGill University, and graduated with distinction in song interpretation from the Hochschule for Müsik “Hanns Eisler”. He is an Equilibrium Young Artist, Samling Artist, Yehudi Menuhin Live Music Now Artist, and Britten Pears Young Artist. Kunal is currently based in Berlin.
