Inès Halimi

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

As composer, her melody Quiero, is created 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). The piece is also recorded on the singer’s new album, entitled Porque existe otro querer (2023), and has been a great success with the public and the music press, including Forum Opera and Ôlyrix. 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 places such as Tonhalle of Zürich, and the Wiener Konzerthaus of Vienna (november and december 2022).
In winter 2023, Inès Halimi is the winner of the Jan Michalski Foundation (Switzerland) writing residency for her Prayers project, combining musical and literary writing: the world premiere of this project will take place in summer 2025 at the Abbatiale de Romainmôtier (Switzerland), where she will perform – alongside the Quatuor Ellipsos – as singer and artistic director.
In June 2024, Inès Halimi is scheduled to appear at the Festival Stiftung Mozarteum in Salzburg, for the world premiere of her song cycle, Three songs after poems by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz – for tenor voice and piano – commissioned by Rolando Villazón.

In parallel with her artistic projects, Inès Halimi has been undergoing intensive training since January 2024 with French conductor Mathieu Herzog, who selected her to join his conducting class at the Rachmaninov Conservatory in Paris.

As a singer, she was chosen by Patricia Petibon to take part in the second edition of her academy, Les Chants d’Ulysse, at the Abbaye Royale de Fontevraud in April 2024.
Inès Halimi performs under direction of conductors such as Leonardo Garcià Alarcòn (soprano solo, in the oratorio Israel in Egypt 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, she 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 the Ellipsos Quartet, the pianist Jean-Philippe Clerc, and on the jazz side, with pianist and composer Alix Logiaco and double bassist Louise Knobil.

In September 2018, Inès Halimi founded Compagnie …Sans Oublier… alongside Marc Mayoraz. Together they signed their first creation, Giacometti ou le Jeu des Mots (Théâtre Interface of Sion, 2019). Their second show, Mon père sur mes épaules, is a « musical reading » based on the novel of the eponymous novel by Metin Arditi. In collaboration with the author, Inès Halimi sets to music the text that Marc Mayoraz plays on stage (Centre Culturel des Terreaux of Lausanne, 2023). Rencontres, the third show written by Inès Halimi, is a lyrical cabaret that she performs on stage alongside Jean-Philippe Clerc (Fondation Jan Michalski, 2023). In the autumn of 2023, Inès Halimi produced her first short film with the company, entitled Dialogues hébraïques – in which music, dance and literature converse.

Inès Halimi is 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 Literature-Music, 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 Master 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.

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

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