Bass-baritone · voice · dance · polyphony
I sing. I dance. It gets interesting when you can’t tell which is which.
Biography
Alan Picol is a Breton bass-baritone whose work moves between singing and dance. Depending on the project, he performs, leads the music or teaches.
The piece t u m u l u s, created by François Chaignaud and Geoffroy Jourdain, was where he first sang and danced on the same stage. The polyphony refuses to stand still: it walks, falls, breathes and gets back up with the performers.
That line of enquiry continues in Petites Joueuses by François Chaignaud at the Louvre, for which he was musical director; in curriculum vitae with Loulou Omer; and in his vocal work on Grains by Simon Feltz. His collaborations with Marine Colard include Âmes coming and Pool Party. The voice takes on a different job each time.
He also sings with Les Cris de Paris, Le Balcon, La Tempête, Vox 21, 6 Voix dans la nuit and A Bocca Chiusa. His repertoire runs from early polyphony to new music, from Berio to Stockhausen, in leading concert halls across Europe.
Together with Aure Wachter, he developed a voice-and-dance method called Singingfoot.
Sing · move · lead · pass it on
A bass-baritone who is sometimes a soloist and often part of the group. His work ranges from early music to new work, with detours through opera, oratorio, a cappella and pop.
Contemporary and Breton dance, physical theatre and mask. Movement is not something added to the singing. It changes how you breathe and how you listen.
He chooses the repertoire, coaches the singers and works out where the voices belong in the space. Building the music also means working with bodies and with the situation at hand.
Technique should give people independence. Breath, tone, listening, play and movement: try it, make sense of it, then try again differently.
Selected work
Musical direction · singing · performance
Six four-hour performances in the medieval Louvre, conceived by François Chaignaud. Alan selected and rehearsed the polyphony, set it in motion, then sang it among the unruly figures.
Louvre Museum · 2024
Festival d’Automne project page ↗Singing · collaborative creation · 6 Voix dans la nuit
With 6 Voix dans la nuit, Alan sings in a cappella programmes where early music, pop and theatrical invention rub shoulders. The ensemble has worked with stage directors Charlotte Costes-Debure and Charles Di Meglio. For Joutes Olympiques, a cabaret spanning Bach, Monteverdi, Tina Turner and Kurt Weill, Costes-Debure directed the staging and Lucile de Trémiolles led the music.
Festival du Temps Suspendu · 2024
Festival programme for Joutes OlympiquesSinger · Michaelion · Le Balcon
Singing in Michaelion, part of the first staged production of this Stockhausen opera in the German-speaking world. Maxime Pascal conducts and Susanne Kennedy directs.
Berlin · September 2026
Production details for Mittwoch aus LichtBass soloist · La Tempête
Bass soloist with La Tempête and Simon-Pierre Bestion in a programme about musical consolation, from Schütz and Buxtehude to Bach, Mendelssohn and Brahms. Premiered at the Leipzig Bachfest, then toured across Europe.
Europe · 2026 to 2027
Programme details for ConsolationsPerformer · singing & dance
Thirteen performers, old and new polyphony, and no fixed boundary between singing and dancing. Choreography by François Chaignaud, musical direction by Geoffroy Jourdain.
European tour · since 2021
Find out more about t u m u l u s and In absentiaPerformer · artistic collaborator · vocal coach
A rhapsodic cabaret made with Loulou Omer, bringing together dance, music, several languages and scraps of lived experience. It still changes with every residency.
In development · since 2024
View project : curriculum vitaeVocal composition · performance
Marine Colard’s piece turns around sirens and metamorphosis. Alan composes with song, breath, text and movement; the voice seems to shed its skin.
New work · 2025 to 2026
About the piece : Âmes comingSinging · dance · performance
A polyphonic cabaret led by François Chaignaud and Geoffroy Jourdain, mixing early and contemporary music. After the Grand Palais and the Festival d’Automne, the Tumerels return in 2027.
Grand Palais · 2025, then 2027
View project : Revue des TumerelsSinging · performance
Marine Colard’s piece takes over the whole swimming pool, from the changing rooms to the water. With Sophie Billon, Sofia Cardona Para and Jean Hostache. Alan carries the singing, sometimes with his feet in the pool.
Created and toured · 2026 to 2027
View project : Pool PartyVoice and dance training · co-tutor
Developed with Aure Wachter, this practice explores how a moving body can keep singing. There is polyphony, listening, group composition and, yes, tiredness. The first public workshop took place at the Ménagerie de Verre.
In development since 2025
Discover Singingfoot ↗
“The voice
won’t sit
still.”
Full CV
Sep. 2026
Singing in Michaelion in the staged production of Karlheinz Stockhausen’s opera, performed by Le Balcon under Maxime Pascal. Five performances from 19 to 27 September. Deutsche Oper Berlin ↗
2026 to 2027
Bass soloist at the Leipzig Bachfest premiere with La Tempête and Simon-Pierre Bestion, followed by concerts in Amsterdam, Compiègne, Grenoble and Aix-en-Provence. The programme moves from Schütz, Buxtehude and Bach to Mendelssohn and Brahms. Bachfest programme ↗
2026
Singer and performer in Pool Party by Marine Colard, first made in Paris swimming pools and later presented in Auxerre and Toulon, before a 2026–2027 tour. He also composed and performed the vocal material for Âmes coming, which brings dance, theatre and singing together. Pool Party ↗
Jul. 2026
Nine days spent on vocal technique, ensemble work and the relationship between singing and movement, continuing Alan’s work with the Chœur et Orchestre des Grandes Écoles.
2025 to 2027
Singer and dancer in this revue by François Chaignaud and Geoffroy Jourdain, premiered at the Festival d’Automne. The Cabaret des Tumerels continues in 2027. He also performed in Warum? with Les Cris de Paris and in the polyphonic reading of Faïel et les histoires du monde at the Hors Limites festival.
Nov. 2025
Coached the mezzo section during rehearsals with the Chœur de l’Orchestre de Paris, then sang in the concerts conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen.
Since 2025
First public Singingfoot workshop with Aure Wachter at the Ménagerie de Verre; voice and movement courses for COGE; the interdisciplinary workshop Bridging the Arts in Vienna with Loulou Omer. Singingfoot ↗
2024 to 2025
Bass with Les Cris de Paris in this Venetian Baroque programme, touring Nantes, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Cergy, Fontevraud and Caen. Rotterdam concert ↗ · Album on Spotify ↗ and Deezer ↗.
2024 to 2026
An ongoing collaboration with choreographer Loulou Omer, spanning performance, musical and vocal research, and at different stages costumes and video. Residencies in Vienna, Graz, Strasbourg and Brussels.
Nov. 2024
Musical director, performer and singer. Six four-hour performances involving research, repertoire choices, rehearsal, direction and performance.
2024
Performer in a reworking of t u m u l u s by François Chaignaud and Geoffroy Jourdain at Chaillot, Théâtre national de la Danse, followed by the Cabaret des Tumerels.
2023 to 2026
Singing in Sonntag aus Licht. For Montag aus Licht at the Opéra de Lille in January 2025, he and Ryan Veillet supported the Chœur de l’Orchestre de Paris, working alongside Le Balcon and Maxime Pascal. He joins Mittwoch aus Licht in Berlin in 2026. Opéra de Lille ↗
Dec. 2024
A week of intensive vocal coaching with the performers of Simon Feltz’s choreographic work. Simon Feltz Company ↗
2023
Prepared the children’s voices and directed their scene for a street-theatre production touring the Paris region.
2019 to 2026
Research and European touring with François Chaignaud and Geoffroy Jourdain’s piece: Festival d’Avignon, Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Wiener Festwochen, Dijon, Brussels, Vienna and many venues across France.
2020 to 2026
Dozens of concerts with 6 Voix dans la nuit, Vox 21, A Bocca Chiusa and Hommes de Seine, which he directs. Barbershop, Renaissance and medieval music sit alongside pop arrangements. A Bocca Chiusa toured six French towns and cities in 2025.
Since 2010
Bass in early and contemporary music programmes including 5.1, Memento Mori, Passions, Son of England with Le Poème Harmonique, David & Salomon, IT, Berio, Extended VOX and Warum?. Concerts, tours and recordings across France and Europe.
2019 to 2021
Taught singing, choral work and musical theatre to around 150 adults and children across ten classes. Devised and staged a performance each term.
Jun. 2018
Vocal coach and stage director for a project bringing together the conservatoire’s dance, singing, rhythm and orchestral departments at the Salle Aragon.
2017 to 2018
Stage direction of Hansel et Gretel by Humperdinck with Opéra Bagatelle at the Théâtre Aktéon and Così fan tutte with Les Trublions. Singer and chorus master in Résistance by Clémentine Amouroux.
2016
Bass in Don César de Bazan by Massenet with Les Frivolités Parisiennes. Performed in the contemporary opera Marta by Wolfgang Mitterer with Les Cris de Paris and Ictus at the Lille and Reims opera houses.
2015
Othello at the Opéra de Massy; Pluto in Orfeo and Il ballo delle Ingrate at the Festival du Comminges; 5.1 and Requiem für einen jungen Dichter with Les Cris de Paris; Messa di Gloria with the Orchestre Lamoureux; the Commendatore in Don Giovanni with Opera è mobile; the Doctor in Bonsoir, M. Pantalon with Les Frivolités Parisiennes.
Apr. 2015
Received the Fantaisiste prize at the national competition run by the Union professionnelle des maîtres du chant français, for a programme of opéra-comique arias.
2013 to 2014
Gaspard in Les Cloches de Corneville on tour under a big top; the Commendatore in Don Giovanni; conducted Bach’s Magnificat and excerpts from Britten’s Little Sweep; soloist at the Musée Carnavalet; directed two children’s choirs in Paris primary schools.
2011 to 2013
Mustafà in L’Italiana in Algeri, chorus in Rigoletto, PRISMEs soloists’ choir at the Choralies, actor-soloist in Impatiences, an opera and dance encounter with José Montalvo, Orphée et Eurydice at MC93 and Le Géant by Prokofiev at the Grand Parquet.
2010
Bass in Les Joueurs and Le Grand Éclair by Shostakovich at the CNSMDP, soloist in O, sing unto the Lord by Purcell and singer in Die Maßnahme by Hanns Eisler at the Opéra de Rennes.
2007 to 2010
Sang with Mikrokosmos, winning prizes at the international competitions in Tolosa, Debrecen and Tours, and occasionally worked as assistant conductor. Founded the student choir Igilgili; directed a hospital choir and a children’s choir in Rennes; performed with Vibrations, Voix Humaines and Prolatio.
2008 to 2009
Sang and spoke the roles of Urbain, Alphonse and Alfred in two productions of Offenbach’s opéra-bouffe, in Saint-Gilles and Dinan.
1999 to 2003
Idriss in Isabelle Aboulker’s children’s opera Idriss ou la fête interrompue. First prize for male performance at the 2003 regional secondary-school competition for the Gravedigger in Cendres sur les mains by Laurent Gaudé.
Training & tools
2010 to 2014
DEM in singing (2012), followed by a DEMS in singing and a DEM in choral conducting (2014), specialising in children’s choirs. Vocal technique with Yves Sottin, conducting with Christine Morel and contemporary voice with Valérie Philippin.
2007 to 2010
Studied singing and conducting with Régine Théodoresco at the Rennes conservatoire. Baritone with Mikrokosmos, assistant conductor and occasional soloist.
1995 to 2005
Ten years of piano and singing at the local conservatoire, alongside theatre throughout secondary school. Early on, Cécile Girod gave him a lasting love of polyphony in motion, and a way of thinking about teaching, musical practice, the joy of singing and the joy of getting others to sing as parts of the same thing.
Body & play
Contemporary dance, including Pierre Doussaint’s technique and work with François Chaignaud; Breton dance. Theatre with Clémentine Amouroux, Pascal Neyron and Damien Bigourdan; mask and physical comedy with Jos Houben.
Languages
Certified English and B2 German; conversational Italian and Spanish; some Breton, Arabic and Japanese. Languages are both sound material and a way of meeting people.
2005 to 2007
Two years of intensive mathematics and physics before music took over. A lasting interest in computing, mathematics and didactics remains: another way of looking at structures and passing things on.
Concert · new work · workshop
For singing, musical direction, teaching, or inventing a form that does not have a name yet.