Reader Submission: French Bass-Barihunk Nicolas Brooymans

Nicolas Brooymans

Our latest reader submission in French Bass-Barihunk Nicolas Brooymans.

Brooymans began singing at an early age as a member of the Chœur d'enfants de l’Opéra de Paris (Children's Choir of the Paris Opera). He went on to study at the Conservatoire du 18ème à Paris and the Masseur-Kinésithérapeute, graduating in 2007.

Since 2013, he has been performing with the Ensemble Correspondances, with a focus on music of the 17th century. Upcoming performances with the group include a program of Charpentier and Purcell in Vienna, Charpentier's Te Deum in Versailles, and concerts in Amsterdam, Bordeaux, Versailles and Metz, France.

Nicolas Brooymans sings Purcell's "Wondrous Banks":

On the operatic stage, Brooymans has performed Sarastro in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, Masetto and the Commendatore in Mozart's Don Giovanni, and Pluton in Charpentier's La descente d'Orphée aux enfers.

He appears on the recording of La Descente D'Orphée on Harmonia Mundi with the Ensemble Correspondances under the baton of Sébastien Daucé. 

Reader Submission: French bass-barihunk Sévag Tachdjian

Sévag Tachdjian

A reader just spotted French bass-barihunk Sévag Tachdjian, who was peforming Alidoro in Rossini's La Cenerentola with Opéra de Tours. Tachdjian, who was born in Beirut, Lebanon is of Armenian, but grew up in Nice, France.

While studying French literature in Paris and journalism in Strasbourg, he devoted himself to singing and studied at the National School of Music in Lyon, France with the great French soprano Françoise Pollet. He subsequently joined for the Opera Studio of the Oper Köln, Germany, and the Opera studio of the Opéra national du Rhin, France, where he performed Marullo in Verdi's Rigoletto, Baron Duphol in La traviata, Sciarrone in Puccini's Tosca, the First Apprentice in Berg's Wozzeck, Spencer Coyle in Britten's Owen Wingrave, and Don Annibale in Donizetti's Il Campanello.

 Sévag Tachdjian & Carol Garcia sing 'Là del ciel nell'arcano profondo' from La Cenerentola:

In 2011 he was voted the  “Best Young Talent” by the German opera magazine Theater Pur. In 2012, he performed in Europea 3 & 4, by John Cage at the Holland Festival. In 2013, he made his Italian debut as Escamillo in Bizet's Carmen at the Montepulciano Festival. He won 2nd Prize at the 2015 “Concours international de chant de Canari” and at the “Internationaler Komitas-Wettbewerb” in Berlin.

He now heads off to sing Le Capitaine in Massenet's comic opera Don César de Bazan, which will be be performed at the Opéra de Reims, Théâtre Saint-Martin Paris and Le Théâtre de Saint-Dizier between February 27 and April 29. Don César de Bazan was the composer's first full length opera to be performed.