BORIS MYCHAJLISZYN, facing the music

Boris Mychajliszyn and Michel Piquemal first crossed musical paths twenty-odd years ago, while the young Mychajliszyn was completing his military service. In the years that followed that first meeting, Mychajliszyn gave up his scientific career and went on to become assistant director of the « Ensemble Vocal Michel Piquemal » in 1998, member of the Regional Île-de-France Vittoria Choir and, in 2011, associate director of that same choir.

AN UNUSUAL CAREER PATH

Having studied chemistry, Boris Mychajliszyn was destined for a career in science. However, this didn’t take into account the musical training he received as a teenager at a conservatoire where he studied piano and singing. In 1991, Mychajliszyn returned to taking singing lessons (with Anna-Maria Bondi) and choral conducting lessons (with Évelyne Schwab and Yves Parmentier), and succeeded in mastering the two with great aplomb.

« Everything changed the year I did my military service, » he explains, » which I spent with the Republican Guard, in the Armed Forces Choir. There I had the chance to meet different directors, one of whom was Michel Piquemal. »

The two men found themselves singing from the same hymn sheet from the get-go.

MEETING MICHEL PIQUEMAL

Mychajliszyn said goodbye to his scientific career and never looked back. Between 1991 and 2013, he directed several amateur and professional vocal groups, including the Chœur français d’Opéra, the Chœur des universités de Paris and the Conservatoire Municipal Charles Münch choir in Paris’ 11th arrondissement. In 1996, he obtained his secondary-school teaching diploma in music education and choral singing. In 1998, Michel Piquemal sought him out for the role of assistant director of his Ensemble Vocal group, before appointing him as associate director of the Regional Île-de-France Vittoria Choir in 2011. That same year, he was awarded the distinction of Knight of the Order of Academic Palms (Chevalier de l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques). From this point on, the two men’s paths were closely linked.

Music is now the sole focus for Mychajliszyn, giving him the opportunity to work with notable names such as Jean-Claude Casadesus, Charles Dutoit, Christoph Eschenbach, Jacques Mercier, John Nelson, Michel Plasson and Yutaka Sado, as well as the chance to direct the Lithuanian National Orchestra, the Musique principale de l’Armée de Terre, the Orchestre lyrique de Paris and the Charles Münch orchestra. Each summer, he leads the Sylvanès Abbey choir and orchestra academy (Académie de chœur et d’orchestre de l’abbaye de Sylvanès).

MENTORING AND ENRICHING YOUNG CHOIRS

Mychajliszyn’s teaching skills are widely respected. In 2005, he was appointed to the role of artistic and musical director of the Hauts-de-Seine chamber choir, a training academy for young choral singers who study choral singing or participate in a specialised music study programme. Since 2007, Mychajliszyn has been serving as musical director at the Legion of Honour as well as director of the Legion of Honour girls’ choir in Saint-Germain-en-Laye. Recipient of the title of Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters (Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres), in 2017 he was selected as artistic and musical director of the various children’s training programmes and choirs grouped under the Maîtrise de Paris choir.