Joël Fonsegrive grew up as a Swiss-French dual citizen near Basel, Switzerland, surrounded by the sounds of Earth, Wind & Fire, Édith Piaf and Giuseppe Verdi. He holds a Master of Arts in Music from the Zurich University of the Arts and is a member of the Basel-based art-pop band The bianca Story.
He has also worked in the studio and on tour with artists and bands including KLAN, We Invented Paris, Das Vereinsheim, ZIAN, The Wedding Party Massacre, Michael Leonardi, The Air Collective and Mañana, performing and recording across Europe and North America, from Toronto to Budapest, via New York, London, Paris and Berlin.
Joël has composed, conducted and performed for numerous music theatre productions, including at Theater Basel, Residenztheater Munich, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Bühnen Bern, Kaserne Basel and Schauburg Munich, as well as in the independent theatre scene in Switzerland, Germany and his second home, France. He has worked on productions directed by Lola Arias, Daniela Kranz, Diana Rojas-Feile, Katrin Hammerl, Dominique Enz, Daniel Pfluger, Tom Ryser and others.
He is a member of CLUB FÜR MELODIEN, an artists’ collective working across music, theatre and film. He also teaches at the Zurich University of the Arts.