It is very rare that one has the pleasure of meeting a true artist.
Raphaelle Brochet’s never ending journey into the world of global performing arts and music has led to her becoming a truly powerful and inspiring performer. Her versatility and dedication to learn have all fed into her unique sound.
Jazz was truly her native language. Raphaëlle was born to musician parents and started her career at the age of 17 by recording an album with Floris Nico-Bunink (Mingus, Billy Holliday) under the label Daybreak. After studying Jazz in French Conservatories, she spent two years in Montreal and New York City, to explore North American performing practices and write music.
In parallel to her jazz studies, Raphaëlle went to South India for more than 15 years to study Carnatic singing with Sarada Thota and konnakol with Ghatam Govindarajan. Then she received a full scholarship from the Wesleyan University, USA, and got a Masters of Ethnomusicology from one of the highest ranked universities of the world, specialised in South Indian music.
Her main collaborations include Nguyên Lê, Pierre de Bethmann, Sixun, Sophie Alour, Heiri Känzig, Prabhu Edouard, Olivier Louvel, Ivan Paduart, and she is also very involved in cross-disciplinary projects such as theater, dance and cinema. She is also very active as an educator and had a position as a jazz faculty in various schools around the world: Brussels Royal Conservatory (BE), Swarnabhoomi Academy of Music and OneWorld Music School (India), Berklee Kuala Lumpur (Malaisia) and the Nantes and Pontault-Combault Conservatories (France). Now based in Paris, she regularly gives workshops around the globe.
Her current projects include a a solo project, a duo with Pierre de Bethmann, Heiri Känzig “Travelin”, Thomas Julienne “Theorem of Joy” and Franck Wolf “VBS”.
“Raphaëlle’s voices are superb” – Le Soir
“Musician of exception” – Jazzaround
“Outstanding artist, literally juggling with her vocal cords and able to do everything” – Jazz in Belgium
“Ses grandes qualités vocales et son imprégnation des civilisations qu’elles a côtoyées donnent une remarquable impression d’authenticité, quelque soit le langage dans lequel elle s’exprime, toujours avec une intensité à laquelle on ne peut rester insensible.” – Jazz Magazine
SOPHIE ALOUR - LIVE IN MARCIAC / From left to right: Damien Argentieri, Abdallah Abozekry, Sophie Alour, Philippe Aerts, Raphaëlle Brochet, Gauthier Garrigue.
IVAN PADUART - LIVE IN FLAGEY / Ivan Paduart, Raphaëlle Brochet, Philip Catherine, Philippe Aerts, Richard Galliano
NGUYEN LÊ - LIVE IN MADRID / Michel Alibo, Mieko Miyazaki, Israel Varela, Raphaëlle Brochet, Prabhu Edouard, Nguyên Lê
Le Podcast de Raphaëlle Brochet
Listen to my 10 episodes podcast where I talk about music, travel and love. Oh, and I sing one tune on each episode :) (the podcast is in French)