Solène

Vocalist

Solène21-year-old French opera singer and violinist SOLÈNE is an emerging artist of extraordinary personality, imagination, and versatility in multiple styles. Equally at home in classical, jazz, folk, and musical theater, she has performed in such venues as Carnegie Hall, the Los Angeles Philharmonic Affiliates, Steinway Hall in New York, the 26th International Jazz Festival in Munster in France, and the Grammy-award winning Resonance Records Studio. Her artistic activities have taken her from Japan and Sweden to Luxembourg, where she was invited to perform under the patronage of the US embassy.

Her electrifying stage presence and vocal virtuosity have been widely acclaimed by audiences. She has been hailed as a “charismatic (…) and outstandingly talented” (actor Michael York), a “vocal phenomenon” (Metropolitan Opera singer Kim Josephson), and “a true artist in every sense of the word” (Metropolitan Opera singer Cynthia Munzer).

SOLÈNE has performed as an orchestral soloist in sacred works and in some of the most demanding operatic repertoire for coloratura soprano. Appearances include a performance with the Young Musicians Foundation Orchestra in a program of world premieres, Maria in Bernstein’s “West Side Story” with the RCM Orchestra, the American premiere of the 1741 version of Handel’s “Messiah” under the auspices of the American Handel Society, and the principal role of “La Musica” in L’Orfeo under the direction of English National Opera director Tom Guthrie.

A child performer, SOLÈNE made her American stage debut at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas at five, where Paul Allen III, lead vocalist from The Platters, announced that “when you hear something like this, it makes it all worthwhile to be in this business”. She continued to give hundreds of concerts nationwide, either as a solo artist or with her musical family. At a young age, she was a host on the Disney Channel and appeared on FRANCE3 TV. Recognized as a classical voice prodigy for her rendition of the Queen of the Night Aria with orchestra, her opera and folk fiddle performances have been shared by Yahoo News, MSN News, the San Francisco Chronicle, and CMUSE, among others.

A winner of numerous competitions, SOLÈNE received an award from the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in New York for her contributions in French musical theater repertoire by Michel Legrand in partnership with the Association of International Educators and the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities. She has worked with Grammy and Emmy award-winning composers such as Bill Cunliffe and J.A.C. Redford and premiered arrangements written especially for her.

SOLÈNE is classically trained. She coached at Juilliard and received instruction at the Royal College of Music in London, where she obtained first class honors for dual study in voice and violin. At Princeton, she pursued studies in French and certificates in Vocal Performance, Italian, and Musical Theater. Her dramatic training includes workshops at the Conservatoire National Supérieur d’Art Dramatique in Paris. SOLÈNE coaches with Metropolitan Opera soprano Carole Farley and is currently mentored by Metropolitan Opera singer and world-class Wagnerian tenor Jon Fredric West.