French soprano Axelle Fanyo “does not only embody a character, she tells us the story. She clearly cultivates the art of communication, which gives her singing another dimension.” (Forum Opera) and is making her mark on both the opera world and in concert halls with her eclectic curiosity and “charismatic, beautiful voice [of] real star quality.” (Renée Fleming) With multiple accolades including the 2021 Nadia and Lili Boulanger Competition grand prize, prestigious Kaleidoscope prize and the Young Artist prize at the International French Song competition, Axelle is without a doubt an artist on the rise.
Axelle recently won her first Grammy in the 67th Grammy Awards for the Best Opera Recording in the role of Refka in Kaija Saariaho’s Adriana Mater (Deutsche Grammophon).
After studying musicology at the Sorbonne and winning awards as a violinist at the Conservatoire La Courneuve, Axelle Fanyo studied at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris (CNSMDP) with Glenn Chambers and obtained her Master’s Diploma. She also took part in the lyric workshop Opera Fuoco, led by David Stern, and was a member of Renée Fleming’s Song Studio at Carnegie Hall in 2019. The Deutsche Grammophon label invited her to make her first solo recordings (with repertoire including Weill, Ravel and Bolcom) within their Rising Star programme, and she was named as a Rising Star for the 2023/24 season in the European Concert Hall Organisation (ECHO) programme, through which she gave a recital tour of around fifteen dates across major European venues including Vienna’s Musikverein, London’s Barbican, Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, the Philharmonie de Paris and Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw. In July 2024 she sang the Olympic Anthem for the opening ceremony of the International Olympic Committee at the Louis Vuitton Salon in Paris.
The 2025/26 season highlights includes her debuts at the Opera di Roma with the reprise of the role of Refka in Kaija Saariaho Adriana Mater and the title role of Ariadne auf Naxos, her debuts in the role of Antonia in Les Contes d’Hoffmann at the Wiener Volksoper, and returns to Opera de Bordeau in Porgy and Bess. In concert she returns to Verdi’s and Mozart’s Requiems with Le Cercle de l’Harmonie and recital appearances will see her tour in the United States, including a return to Carnegie Hall, with pianist Julius Drake, and give recitals in Paris and London with Julius Drake and Fleur Barron.
As of March 2026