Stephan MacLeod is a singer and a conductor. Born in Geneva, he is the founder and artistic director of Gli Angeli Genève, an ensemble specialising in repertoire from the 17th to 19th centuries on period instruments. He now conducts between 40 and 50 concerts a year around the world, including a growing number as guest conductor with 'modern' orchestras. He is also happily pursuing his career as a singer and teaches singing at Geneva's Haute Ecole de Musique (HEM).
Stephan MacLeod studied violin and piano before turning to singing, which he first studied at the Geneva Conservatoire, then with Kurt Moll at the Musikhochschule in Cologne and finally with Gary Magby at the Haute Ecole de Musique in Lausanne. His singing career began during his studies in Germany, thanks to a fruitful collaboration with Reinhard Goebel and Musica Antiqua Köln. It was then that the doors of the world of oratorio opened to him, and he has since performed regularly on the most important stages under conductors such as Philippe Herreweghe, Jordi Savall, Frieder Bernius, Franz Brüggen and Masaaki Suzuki, Michel Corboz, Gustav Leonhardt, Christophe Coin, Konrad Junghänel, Hans-Christoph Rademann, Sigiswald Kuijken, Vaclav Luks, Philippe Pierlot, Helmut Rilling, Rudolf Lutz, Raphael Pichon, Daniel Reuss, Paul Van Nevel and Jos Van Immerseel, as well as with Thierry Fischer, Jonathan Nott, Daniel Harding and Jesus Lopez Cobos.
A singer with a love of song and melody, he gives numerous recitals, but has also been heard on opera stages, notably productions at La Monnaie in Brussels and La Fenice in Venice, as well as on the opera stages of Geneva, Toulouse, Nîmes, Bordeaux, Cologne, Potsdam, Freiburg, Girona, etc.
Since 2005, in parallel with his singing career, he has also devoted himself to conducting and is the founder of Gli Angeli Genève, which has reaped the rewards of significant international recognition in recent years.
From 2013 to 2023, he was professor of singing at the Haute Ecole de Musique de Lausanne, and since September 2023 he teaches at the Haute Ecole de Musique de Genève. He divides his time between teaching, his commitments as a singer, his ensemble and invitations to conduct - particularly Bach - with increasing frequency. He regularly conducts the musicians of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, as well as the Philharmonie Zuidnederland, the Hungarian National Philharmonic, the Nederlandse Bachvereniging and Les Ambassadeurs – La Grande Écurie.
Stephan MacLeod's discography includes more than 100 CDs, many of them to critical acclaim. He is the lucky father of two wonderful children and lives with his family in Geneva.
About his role at the Royal Conservatoire, Stephan says:
“I owe a significant part of my career to the Netherlands and the importance of music there. It is by far the country outside my own where I have been given the most opportunities to express myself on stage, share my passion and build an artistic identity. The opportunity to teach at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague today is therefore first and foremost a chance for me to give back a little of what I have received. But it also means the pleasure of joining a prestigious school and colleagues with an approach to early music that I have long admired and from which many of my best friends and fellow musicians have emerged. I am grateful, eager and happy for this new opportunity to share music and my love of singing!”