home > countertenor profiles > damien guillon

Damien Guillon begins his musical knowledge in 1989 at the Maîtrise de Bretagne supervised by Jean-Michel Noël. He receives a full music education from his youngest age and quickly sings as solo soprano in many baroque oratorios as well as at the Rennes Opera in The Magic Flute by Mozart.

From 1998 till 2001, he is a member of the Maîtrise du Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles directed by Olivier Schneebeli, where he improves his vocal technique and deepens his 
research about early music interpretations with Howard Crook, Jérome Corréas, Alain Buet, Noëlle Barker. In 2004, he is admitted at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis to receive the teaching of Andreas Scholl. At the same time, he studies organ with Frédéric Desenclos and Véronique Le Guen and graduated in Boulogne-Billancourt Conservatory (continuo and harpsichord).

Currently, his vocal and musical qualities earned him invitations to perform with conductors as famous as Masaaki Suzuki, Vincent Dumestre, Hervé Niquet, Philippe Pierlot, Pierre Hantaï, Jean-Claude Malgoire, Christophe Rousset, Philippe Herreweghe and William Christie.
His repertoire ranges from songs of the English Renaissance to Baroque oratorios and operas by Monteverdi (L’Incoronazione di Poppea), Bach (Saint John Passion, Saint Matthew Passion, Mass in B minor, Lutherian masses, Christmas Oratorio and cantatas for solo alto), Händel (The Messiah), Purcell (King Arthur and Dido and Aeneas) etc...
He performed in several staged productions such as Händel’s Athalie (Paul McCreesh in Ambronay), Teseo (Gilbert Bezzina, Nice Opera) and Giulio Cesare (François-Xavier Roth, Yannis Kokkos, Théâtre de Caen), Monteverdi’s Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria (Philippe Pierlot, Théâtre de La Monnaie, Brussels) or, recently, Landi’s Il Sant' Alessio (William Christie and Les Arts 
Florissants).

Damien Guillon is now frequently invited as a conductor: he conducted Caldara’s Maddalena ai piedi di Christo with Les Musicians du Paradis, Bach’s Magnificat with the Café Zimmermann and the Chamber Choir of Rouen at the Arques-la-Bataille Festival and Bach’s cantatas with the Collegium Vocale Gent in Saintes.
Recent engagements include his debut concert at the Edinburgh festival (Eustazio in Händel’s Rinaldo conducted by Maasaki Suzuki), a tour with Hervé Niquet and Le Concert Spirituel 
in Vivaldi’s Gloria and Nisi Dominus (Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, Opéra de Montpellier etc...) and the role of Arcane in Händel’s Teseo with Les Folies Françoises and Patrick Cohën-Akenine (Théâtre d’Orléans, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées).

This season, he will sing the alto solo part in Bach’s Saint Matthew Passion with Philippe Herreweghe and the Collegium Vocale Gent (Lincoln Center in New York, Palau de la Musica in Barcelone, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Baden-Baden Festival etc...) and Saint John Passion with Bernard Labadie and Les Violons du Roy (Palais Montcalm in Québec and Carnegie Hall in New York).

© Damien Guillon

Articles, Reviews & Websites

Discography

YouTube Videos