Samuel Favre

Born in Neuilly sur Seine, Samuel Favre grew up in Lyon in a family of musicians. He studied the percussion under the tuition of Alain Londeix at the Conservatoire, then under Georges Van Gucht’s at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Lyon, graduating in 2000.

For him, “multiple” is the key word to describe a percussionist, who has to master a number of instruments and use percussion to touch on a wide range of musical styles. Eventually, Samuel Favre chose to dedicate himself to the contemporary repertoire, which has given percussion an ever-growing role. He joined the Ensemble intercontemporain in 2001, with which he has met and played the work of many composers, while continuing to perform as a soloist and chamber musician.

To broaden his performing options, Samuel Favre also turned to musical theatre and dance, which led him to take part in the creation of the Compagnie Arcosm, co-directed by Thomas Guerry and Camille Rocailleux. For over ten years, he played the role of dancer/percussionist in the show Echoa (2001).

Combining the stage with contemporary music, Samuel Favre collaborates with multi-faceted creators such as Thierry de Mey, François Sarhan and Alexander Schubert, and has taken part in a number of educational shows, to help people discover contemporary music through percussion. In 2023, he created the show Éclats de percussion with choreographer Stéphane Grosjean at the Philharmonie de Paris, and in 2024 he took part in the school residency Du Terrain à la scène as part of the Olympiades culturelles of Paris.

Passionate about passing on and sharing his experience with younger generations, he teaches percussion at the Pôle d’enseignement supérieur Aliénor in Poitiers.