Born in 1990, the baritone Ivan Thirion was trained at the Conservatory in Brussels and the Geneva University of Music where he obtained his Master with Professor Gilles Cachemaille. He was subsequently trained at CNIPAL (Marseille) and the Opera studio of Zurich. Then the Salzburg Festival invited him to take part in it’s Young Singers Project 2015, which also enhanced his career.

At the Royal Opera house of Wallonie (Liège) he made his debut at Papageno in the Magic Flute. Also in recent years the artist appeared in Liège amongst others as Enrico (Lucia di Lammermoor), Lord Cecil in Maria Stuarda and Don Carlo di Vargas (La Forza del Destino), the latter as cover.
Meanwhhile Ivan Thirion has repeatedly sung under conductors as Fabio Luisi, Marco Armiliato, William Christie, Kazushi Ono, John Fiore, Paolo Arrivabeni and Leonardo Garcia Alarcon … and worked toghether with stage directors such as David Pountney, Giancarlo del Monaco, Stefano Mazzonis di Pralafera, Andreas Homoki, Philippe Sireuil, Claus Guth, Marcial di Fonzo Bo, Waut Koeken, Simon Stone …

Season 2023-2024.

At ORW Liège Ivan Thirion participates both in the season’s opening production of Barbiere di Siviglia as in Carmen (as Le Dancaire) being the closing title of the current season. Between the two he’s meeting with fellow-traveller Ravel at the opera houses of Avignon and Tours, where he sings Ramiro in L’heure espagnole and Le Chat & L’horloge in L’enfant et les Sortilèges.

Subsequently, on his way to Lyon to sing Somarone (Béatrice et Bénédict), Ivan will make a little detour to Geneva where he will sing – under the baton of M° Guillaume Tourniaire – the role of Calabazas, in the concert performance and CD-recording at Victoria Hall of Camille Erlanger rarely performed opera La Sorcière.

He will shortly make his debut as Don Andres de Ribeira in Offenbach’s La Périchole and sing Albert in Massenet’s Werther. he will also be Valentin in Gounidd’s Faust and Fra Melitone in La Forza del Destino

Récents engagements
Ivan Thirion debut as Rodrigo, Marchese di Posa in Verdi’s Don Carlo sungunder M° Marcus Bosch at the Operafestival of Heidenheim 2023 ; his house debut at the opera of Strasbourg, where he sang the Messenger & 2nd Sailor in The tale of Tsar Saltan
(Rimski-Korsakow). His return to the Grand Théâtre Geneva where he participated as Matteo, in the premiere of the French version of Christian Bénédict at the Opera house of Cologne, there under the baton of François- René Roth. Noteworthy are as well : his first Rigoleto— coproduced by the opera house of Rouen and the Paris Théâtre des Champs Elysées and his role debut as Nardo/Roberto in Mozart’s La Finta giardiniera at Théâtre des Martyres, Brussels.

Below a selection of Ivan’s other roles sung on stage : Roderick Usher in The Fall of the House of Usher (Debussy/Van Parys), Joseph in Der Schmied von Gent, Schreker),The Officer in The penal colony, Glass) – all three performed at the Flanders Opera – Golaud in Impressions de Pelléas (Debussy/Constant), Sparck in (Fantasio, Offenbach), Belcore in L’Elisir d’Amore, Ping in Turandot, Knecht & Wirt in Firebird (Prokofiev), Oronte in Médée (M. A. Charpentier), the Count of Toulouse in Jerusalem (Verdi), Grimbald & 3rd Man in King Arthur (Purcell).

Awards and achievements

July 2013 Ivan Thirion was awarded with the «Wil Keune Prize for a young singer with real potential» at the 32th edition of the «Hans Gabor Belvédère Competition» (Amsterdam edition). The same year he won the 2nd Prize at the 6th edition of the St Petersburg Opera Competiton. He is also finalist of the 26th «Eleanor McCollum Competition for Young Singers» at the Houston Grand Opera (2014).

Eventually he has been chosen for the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition 2017, being the first Belgian and Bulgarian to reach the final rounds since 30 years.