Pascal Mayer

To introduce Pascal Mayer? It's to convey enthusiasm in a heartbeat. Indeed, it's through this brotherly enthusiasm that he gathers people into the communicative -and, by him, irrevocable - energy of music.
Don't be misled by the gentle gaze or the youthful curls of his hair. For a long time, he has journeyed through all the centuries of musicians, learned from the most passionate conductors with whom he trained, sought out contemporary composers to discover and bring them to life with the best of his choirs.
Does he have doubts in his daily life? Of course! Do you think one can live a passion unscathed, in the sensitive flesh of music? But these are the kinds of doubts in him that stimulate and generate. They propel the soul forward through the test of time and give life to the future.
But here he is, standing before you at the start of the concert: suddenly, nothing else exists but this moment given, and united.
Jean-Dominique Humbert, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Coopération newspaper

A choir conductor from Fribourg, Pascal Mayer studied singing and choral conducting at the conservatories of Fribourg and Zurich. He was a member of the Lausanne Vocal Ensemble (dir. Michel Corboz), the Radio Romande Choir (dir. André Charlet), and the Stuttgart Chamber Choir (dir. Frieder Bernius). He conducted the Basler Kammerchor for Paul Sacher for five years and the Faller Choir of Lausanne for 20 years. From 1987 to 1997, he worked alongside André Charlet as co-director of the Romand Chamber Choir.

With a musical sensitivity as lively as it is eclectic, combining formal rigor with lyrical and expressive qualities acquired during his youth in the school of Renaissance Pascal Mayer studied singing and choral conducting at the conservatories of Fribourg and Zurich. Pascal Mayer explores great works, from Bach's Mass in B Minor to Britten's War Requiem. He has premiered numerous works by Swiss composers.

Pascal Mayer founded the Fribourg University Choir and Youth Musical Ensemble, as well as the Fribourg University Chamber Choir. In 1995, with Valaisan choir conductor Hansruedi Kämpfen, Pascal Mayer established the Swiss Youth Choir within the framework of the Swiss Europa Cantat Federation.

He leads the Pro Arte Choir in Lausanne, an ensemble with which he delves into the oratorio repertoire.

In Lucerne, he is the conductor of the Collegium Musicum at the Jesuit Church, where he also teaches choral conducting at the Hochschule-Musik.

From 1985 to 2020, he taught music at the Ste-Croix College in Fribourg, where he founded and conducted the Ste-Croix College Choir until 2020.

From 1996 to 2019, he prepared the choirs for the Avenches Opera Festival. He is regularly invited to prepare choirs for the Opéra de Lausanne.

Pascal Mayer collaborates with the Orchestre de Chambre Fribourgeois, the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, the Sinfonietta de Lausanne and the Ensemble baroque du Léman.