Julien Dran was born in Bordeaux, into a family of opera singers and began his musical education at an early age. He studied voice for two years at the Bordeaux Conservatory and earned a residency at the CNIPAL in Marseille for the 2007-2008 season. He made his debut at the Marseille Opera. Following the Clermont-Ferrand International Singing Competition in 2009, he performed the role of Ferrando in Così fan tutte at the Centre Lyrique Clermont Auvergne. During the 2010 / 2011 season, he sang the role of Fenton in Falstaff at the Metz Opera and participated in his first recording (Charpentier’s Didon). He won First Prize at the Gayarr Competition in Pamplona, Spain, under the presidency of Teresa Berganza. In 2012, he played Tamino (Die Zauberflöte) at the Corte Festival and then sang the role of Count Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro at the Bordeaux Opera and Edmondo in Manon Lescaut at the Théâtre de La Monnaie in Brussels. He won first prize in the male singer category at the “Paris Opera Awards” at the Salle Gaveau in Paris in January 2013, and then sang the title role of Auber’s Fra Diavolo at the Limoges Opera. His other roles include Fenton at the Massy Opera, Matteo Borsa in Rigoletto at the 2013 Aix Festival, Lindoro (L’Italiana in Algeri), Nadir (Les Pêcheurs de perles), Arturo (Lucia di Lammermoor), and Kudrias (Kátia Kabanová) at the Avignon Opera; Ruodi (Guillaume Tell), Bénédict (Béatrice et Bénédict), and Antinoüs (Pénélope) at the Monnaie in Brussels; Edgardo (Lucia di Lammermoor) at the Centre Lyrique de Clermont Auvergne and the Massy Opera; Gastone (La Traviata), Matteo Borsa (Rigoletto) and the Count of Lerma (Don Carlos) at the Paris Opera; Alfred (Die Fledermaus) and Tebaldo (I Capuleti e i Montecchi) at the Marseille Opera, Alfredo (La Traviata) with the Opéra Éclaté Company, the Young Horace (Salieri’s Les Horaces) at Versailles and the Theater an der Wien with the Les Siècles orchestra, Gerald (Lakmé) at the Tours Opera, and Nadir (Les Pêcheurs de perles) in Limoges and Reims. He also created the role of Tibère in the world premiere production of Dominique Gesseney-Rappo’s Carlotta ou la Vaticane at the Fribourg Opera.

Projects: Nadir at the Nice Opera, Raimbaut (Robert le Diable) at La Monnaie in Brussels, and the Duke of Mantua (Rigoletto) in Massy.

Julien DranTenor