Aris Christofellis ( el, Άρης Χριστοφέλλης; born 5 February 1960) is a Greek

sopranist A sopranist (also, sopranista or male soprano) is a male singer who is able to sing in the vocal tessitura of a soprano usually through the use of falsetto or head voice vocal production. This voice type is a specific kind of countertenor. In rar ...

(male soprano singer) and

musicologist Musicology (from Greek μουσική ''mousikē'' 'music' and -λογια ''-logia'', 'domain of study') is the scholarly analysis and research-based study of music. Musicology departments traditionally belong to the humanities, although some m ...

Life and career

Aris Christofellis was born in

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

. After studying piano in Athens and

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

with several teachers including the famous pianist France Clidat, he decided to concentrate on developing his male soprano singing voice, studying with Fofi Sarandopoulo. He made his debut in Bordeaux in 1984. In 1985 he sang Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's '' Exsultate, jubilate'' at Cannes Midem Classique inauguration concert. His repertoire extends from

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...

to contemporary music, but he focuses on the Italian baroque opera of the 18th and early 19th century. As a musicologist, he has brought to light many works of this period and has dealt in particular with the ornamentation of the vocal music of the 18th and 19th centuries. As a performer, in addition to lieder and folk songs he concentrates on Baroque opera, and he is known for singing roles written for castrati. He maintains an extensive discography with several recordings for

EMI Classics EMI Classics was a record label founded by Thorn EMI in 1990 to reduce the need to create country-specific packaging and catalogues for internationally distributed classical music releases. After Thorn EMI demerged in 1996, its recorded mus ...

between the mid 1990s and early 2000. Since the end of the 1990s, Christofellis has significantly reduced his concert and opera performances and has started a career as a singing teacher.

References

External links

The World of the Castrati and Male Soprano

Aris Christofellis

1960 births Living people Singers from Athens Sopranists Greek musicologists Voice teachers 20th-century Greek male opera singers Performers of early music {{Opera-singer-stub EMI Classics and Virgin Classics artists