The Académie vocale de Suisse romande (AVSR), a professional chamber choir, welcomes professional singers and students from all over the French-speaking part of Switzerland. It was formed in August 2009 by Renaud Bouvier and Dominique Tille, who are the inspiration and artistic directors.

The AVSR recruits singers who have a specific role to play in the balance and fusion of the choir’s registers. This particular search for alchemy, depending on the project, makes it possible to obtain a palette of vocal colours thanks to the characters of the individual timbres.

Although its repertoire is vast, the AVSR’s primary mission is to perform choral music of the 20th and 21st centuries, which is too rarely performed professionally in French-speaking Switzerland. It aims to give priority to recent works and premieres.

The AVSR conceives its projects as experiences to be shared on many levels, combining the demands of interpretation with a lively concert format. Putting works into perspective within their history, bringing composers and eras into dialogue, relating music to the chosen venues, and taking over unexpected spaces: these are the approaches it seeks to bring to its productions.

The AVSR is a natural part of the musical landscape in French-speaking Switzerland, recognised as a bold and dynamic professional ensemble. It enjoys regular collaboration with leading cultural institutions.

One of the distinctive features of the AVSR is its double artistic direction. The two conductors share the same vision: to develop the connection with the voice and choral music for the public and the singers, to believe in the emotional potential of the human voice, in the service of a repertoire and the composers who enrich it.