Inès Halimi

Inès Halimi is a French composer, singer, pianist, author, and actress.
Artistic director of the Compagnie …Sans Oublier…, she creates and produces multidisciplinary shows : mingling music, theater, literature, dance, and painting.

Born in 1993 in Paris, her grandfather, Paul Hadjaje, “alto super-solist” of Opéra de Paris, immersed her in the music very young. At the age of four, she starts to play piano and at seven she follows a cursus of musical studies at flexible hours at the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional of Boulogne-Billancourt, in the class of Michèle Tedeschi. At fifteen she starts in-depth study of classical singing with Sophie Pondjiclis (mezzo-soprano), and simultaneously develops her jazz and improvisations qualities with Mila Lumbroso.

Following the Baccalaureate, Inès Halimi is admitted to the Haute Ecole de Musique of Lausanne (HEMU) for a Bachelor in Jazz Singing, in the class of Susanne Abbuehl, where she deepens her studies in improvisation and composition.Conducting studies of jazz and classical singing she is admitted in the Masters Program in Lyrical Interpretation in the department Classique of HEMU, in the class of Leontina Vaduva, and after Stephan Macleod. In parallel she pursues an intensive Theatrical Interpretation at the Atelier Lyrique of HEMU conducted by Marc Mayoraz. Inès Halimi holds also a Masters in Vocal Pedagogy, in the class of Frédéric Gindraux. Since December 2017, and upon the advice and encouragement of Isabelle Aboulker, she has been working on musical composition with the French composer, Yves Chauris.

In September 2018, Inès Halimi founded the Compagnie …Sans Oublier… alongside Marc Mayoraz. Together they sign their first creation, Giacometti ou le Jeu des Mots (created in April 2019, at the Théâtre Interface of Sion, Switzerland). Inès Halimi writes the text, and composes the music, Marc Mayoraz stages the show. The second projet of the compagny happens in August 2020: Inès Halimi and Marc Mayoraz offer a « musical lecture » of the book Mon père sur mes épaules of Metin Arditi. In collaboration with the author, Inès Halimi sets to music the text Marc Mayoraz plays on stage.

As composer, Inès Halimi creates her melody Quiero at the Opera of Lausanne in September 2020, performed by the mezzo-soprano, Marina Viotti (Best Lyrical Artist Award, at the Victoires de la Musique 2023). Twice winner of the Academy of Composition « Léo Delibes » under the direction of Thierry Escaich, she composes during the 2020-2021 season, Quatuor pour un inconnu, a saxophone quartet. The piece is created and performed by the Quatuor Ellipsos, in July 2021 at the Festival des Forêts of Compiègne. For the season 2021-2022, she composes the Sonate Réminiscence for the Trio Messiaen, created in July 2022 at the Festival des Forêts.
In October 2022, the tenor Rolando Villazón commissions a musical piece from Inès Halimi, based on a sonnet by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz : the melody, Entre tus manos, is premiered worldwide, during the singer’s international tour, in Bern, Hanover, Basel, Lucerne, Zurich, Vienna, and Hamburg (november and december 2022).
In the winter of 2023, Inès Halimi is the laureate of the writing residency at the Jan Michalski Foundation (Switzerland) to carry out her project Prayers, mixing musical and literary writing: this project will lead to a series of concerts in 2024, in which she will perform – alongside the Ellipsos Quartet – as singer and artistic director.
An ambitious project is being written around the latest Monologue de Caligula (from the theater piece of Albert Camus) : Inès Halimi sets to music this monologue for Marina Viotti, a classical orchestra and a rock ensemble.

As singer, Inès Halimi performs under direction of conductors such as Leonardo Garcià Alarcòn (soliste soprano part, in the oratorio Israel in Egypte of G. F Händel), Nir Kabaretti (role of Papagena, in Die Zauberflöte of W. A Mozart) at Jerusalem Opera Studio, David Schemer (role of Cleopatra, in Giulio Cesare of G. F Handel) with Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra.
In a contemporary repertoire, Inès Halimi approches Written on skin (role of Agnès), and performs Music for 18 musicians of Steve Reich, under the direction of Emmanuel Séjourné, alongside Susanne Abbuehl and Lauren Newton.
She partners on stage with musicians such as Jean-Philippe Clerc (pianist and chef de chant at Opéra de Lausanne), Yakir Arbib (pianist and composer), Marina Viotti (mezzo-soprano), Alix Logiaco (jazz pianist and composer), and the recitalists Nikita and Maxime Ramic. 

Inès Halimi is a composer published by Artchipel Editions since April 2022

© Copyright - Inès HALIMI - Design : Nadine Guyon - Photos : Clément Lambla, Estelle Vidon - 2022