Renowned Vocal Coach François Germain to Join CIM Faculty in 2019-20

Internationally acclaimed vocal coach and pianist François Germain will join the Cleveland Institute of Music voice department as full-time conservatory faculty beginning with the 2019-20 academic year. He brings more than 20 years of national and international experience in teaching and performance to CIM.

“We are thrilled to welcome François Germain to the CIM faculty in the fall,” said Dr. Judy A. Bundra, CIM’s chief academic officer and dean of the Conservatory. “He has an impeccable reputation as a performer and teacher, ranging from the great capitals of Europe to New York, Boston and Montréal. He will become part of our distinguished voice faculty who exemplify a high standard of excellence every day, and bring a level of outstanding artistry and teaching that everyone has come to expect from CIM.”

A native French and German speaker, Germain specializes in French mélodie, Lied and art song. He served from 2002-07 at the University of Montréal as a vocal coach and assistant to Rosemarie Landry where he acquired a unique expertise in French lyric diction and style. He has worked as a vocal coach for the University of Miami Frost School of Music in Salzburg (Austria) program as well as Operetta Belle Lurette in Québec.

He has given master classes and workshops on French repertoire in Europe and the US, including at the Longy School of Music of Bard College and CIM. He also served as a French diction coach for CIM Opera Theater’s production of Massenet’s Cendrillon in 2012.

Dean Southern, head, voice and opera division and artistic director of CIM Opera Theater, said Germain’s expertise in voice diction and French and German will provide CIM students with a comprehensive set of tools for the study and application of lyric diction. He will work closely with current CIM vocal coach John Simmons, Southern added.

“François Germain is in high demand as a vocal coach, having just returned from Dresden, Germany, where he worked at the Semperoper on Rameau’s Platée and will return later this month for Meyerbeer’s Les Huguenots,” Southern said. “In addition to his native fluency in French and German, which will benefit our students tremendously, François is a leader in applied lyric diction through his innovative work as one of the founders of The Diction Police, an online resource for singers. Because of this expertise, and through his linguistic authenticity and depth of understanding, CIM students will be ready to embark on their international singing careers.”

Recent performances by Germain include such venues as the Schloss Mirabell in Salzburg, Galerie d’Art d’Outremont, Salle Claude Champagne (Montréal), Steinart Hall in Boston and Leakin Hall in Baltimore, and he has participated in festivals in Banff and Centre d’Arts d’Orford.

Germain holds a bachelor’s degree in music from the Conservatoire Darius Milhaud in his hometown of Aix-en-Provence, France, master’s and doctoral degrees in piano performance from the University of Montréal and a master’s degree in political science from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques, also in Aix-en-Provence. Currently he is an associate professor of vocal coaching and piano at the State University of New York at Potsdam’s Crane School of Music, where he is head of the voice area and teaches piano performance.