The University of Geneva Chamber Choir

The University of Geneva Chamber Choir, conducted jointly by Borbala Szuromi and Pierre-Antoine Marçais, brings together experienced amateur singers from the university community.   This choir gives them a chance to tackle a demanding, enriching and diversified repertoire, usually sung a cappella.

 

The choir gives one or two concerts every six months, and recently featured in the Geneva History and City Festival.  It benefits from working with other vocal ensembles as well, in particular the Dulcis Memoria de Genève Ensemble as well as the Evohé Vocal Ensemble of Lausanne.

 

On November 16, 2025, the University of Geneva Chamber Choir will perform for the first time in the Auditoire de Calvin, with Margot Boitard at the organ.

As a conductor, Pierre-Antoine Marçais has conducted several well-known ensembles in Hungary, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Brazil.   Meanwhile he has also been  active in the local musical world.  As Musical Director of the University of Geneva Orchestra and Choir, he has regularly conducted the orchestra of the Geneva Haute Ecole de Musique as well as a number of Genevan ensembles (The Geneva Chamber Orchestra, the Ensemble Contrechamps).

 

He obtained a Master's degree from the Geneva Haute Ecole de Musique and an advanced degree from the Paris Ecole Normale de Musique in orchestral conducting.  He has expanded his knowledge by learning from maestros such as Neemearvi, Jorma Panula and Johannes Schlafli.  He trained as a cellist and oboist, and also obtained a degree from the Paris Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse in analysis, harmonisation, counterpoint, fugue and orchestration. 

 

Being open to different pedagogical approaches,  Pierre-Antoine Marçais has participated actively in several musical socio-educational projects with the Brazilian NEOJIBA in Salvador de Bahia and the Jerusalem Edward Said National Music Conservatory.  In addition, he is assistant director and pedagogical coordinator at the Lausanne Conservatory.   

 

As an advocate for creating bridges between music and the arts, Pierre-Antoine Marçais is the Artistic Director for the Philharmonic Show Orchestra, an orchestral project promoting musical creativity and democratising classical and contemporary music while reflecting on the future of symphony concerts.

Borbala Szuromi was born into a family of opera musicians and started her music studies in Budapest.  After being trained to teach instrumental performance and to conduct choirs, she did two Master’s degrees at the Geneva Haute École de Musique: one in violin and the other in opera singing.

 

She was a soloist at the Geneva Grand Theatre in Philip Glass’s Einstein on the Beach and in the role of Jenufa in Janacek’s Jano.  She was also a soloist in the first edition of OperaLab.ch, a multidisciplinary opera creation (Leonardo Marino’s Eight Minutes).

 

As a performer-composer-arranger, her repertoire is varied, encompassing a wide range of musical genres, and she explores vocal approaches using electronics.  Her multifaceted training has equipped her to tackle projects involving performance, creativity and mediation.  She was awarded, in particular,  the Paleo Prize (2018) by the HES-SO and the Leenaards Foundation Cultural Fellowship (2023), for her creative work.  

 

As she is extremely passionate about teaching and is an expert in the Kodaly method, she is currently working as a coach for the University of Geneva Choir.  Since 2020, she has been co-conductor, together with Pierre-Antoine Marcais, of the University of Geneva Chamber Choir.