Agnès Watson
Musical Director, France
Agnès Watson began her musical studies in Evreux (France) where she obtained two Gold Medals, in piano and chamber music. At the same time, she studied harmony and counterpoint at the CNSM in Paris, then accompaniment at the Conservatoire in Boulogne-Billancourt and completed her piano training with various instructors including Bruno Rigutto, Jean Koerner and Hortense Cartier-Bresson. She also studied conducting with Sergiù Celibidache in Munich and Mainz, then with Charles Bruch and Michael Jinbo at The Pierre Monteux School in Hancock, USA.
She has worked as vocal coach at the Opera National de Lyon for the world premiere in 2004 of “Les Nègres” by Michael Levinas, and also in Boulogne for Strauss’s “La Chauve-Souris,” Ohana’s “Le Mariage sous la Mer,” and Ravel’s “L’Enfant et les Sortilèges”. She was responsible for the accompaniment and musical direction of the opera “Aliboron” by Pierre Grouvel. As a conductor, she has appeared with the Ensemble Itinérance (Pergolese’s Stabat Mater), the Saxophone Ensemble at the Duras Festival and the Normandy Chamber Orchestra.
She has performed several chamber music and vocal recitals with such singers as Florence Katz, Herbert Perry, Eugene Perry, Véronique Bicheray, Kristin Sax-Jansen. She co-founded the Ensemble Scherzando, opéra and musical theater, with Cyril Lévi-Provençal, and has taken part in many various shows combining singing, music and theater, including « Sam et Léna », a musical play performed in Avignon ‘s off-festival with the Company Capharnaüm.
Since 2014, she has been regularly invited as vocal coach at the “Academies Internationales du Grand Paris” in Mary Saint-Palais’s studio, and at the arts association “La Voix Humaine.” Holding the “Diplôme d’Etat de Professeur de Piano” and the “Certificat d’Aptitude d’Accompagnateur”, Agnès Watson is currently vocal coach and assistant in Florence Katz’s voice studio at the CRD in Bourg-la-Reine/Sceaux.