A graduate from the Fourvière Children’s Choir of Lyon and then the Paris Conservatoire, Olivier Coiffet is revered for the quality of his performances in German and Italian Baroque repertoire, and for the attention he gives to declamation and drama.

Following a diploma from Sciences-Po Paris and a degree in Cultural Management, he turned to music in 2004 and soon appeared as a soloist with many European ensembles and conductors, including Pygmalion (Raphaël Pichon), Collegium Vocale (Philippe Herreweghe), Le Poème Harmonique (Vincent Dumestre), the Huelgas Ensemble (Paul Van Nevel), Académie Bach (Michael Radulescu), La Fenice (Jean Tubéry), Ars Nova (Jean- Michaël Lavoie), Vox Luminis (Lionel Meunier), Weser Renaissance (Manfred Cordes), Correspondances (Sébastien Daucé), I Gemelli (Emiliano Gonzalez Toro), Gli Angeli (Stephan MacLeod)…

His interpretation of the Evangelist in J.S.Bach’s Passions and Christmas Oratorio has earned him many invitations throughout Europe: he has appeared in Belgium, Luxembourg, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, and also in Switzerland for Radio Espace2, under the direction of the Austrian conductor Michael Radulescu. He also devotes himself to Lieder, from Mozart to Berg, via Schumann, Brahms…

On stage and on record he performs in contemporary works, such as Bruno Mantovani’s L’Enterrement de Mozart, in which he took the lead role (Festival de Besançon and Grand Théâtre d’Aix-en-Provence), and Fernando Fiszbein’s L’homme qui aimait… (Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires). He is equally in demand in Baroque opera: with Le Poème Harmonique and Vincent Dumestre he has performed the title role in Caligula delirante by Pagliardi (in numerous festivals in France and broadcast by France Musique). Past and future seasons see him take on several roles under the direction of Raphaël Pichon, in operas by Rossi, Cavalli and Rameau. His voice also allows him to engage in Romantic opera, as in Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffman, where he sings the role of Nathanaël on stage in Rouen and Versailles.

Recently he sang as a soloist in Monteverdi’s 1610 Vespers in Germany and Great Britain with Vox Luminis and the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, and Jean-Louis Florentz’s Magnificat at the Festival Messiaen, with the Orchestre de Cannes (broadcast by France Musique).

In 2020 he will perform with Ensemble Pygmalion and Raphaël Pichon at the Armory Hall in New York in Monteverdi’s 1610 Vespers, in Krakow in a programme of Praetorius, and at the Opéra Comique de Paris and Opéra Royal de Versailles in Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie. In 2021, with Ensemble Arabesque de Montreux, he will sing the Evangelist in the St. Matthew Passion in concerts throughout Switzerland.