Joël Fonsegrive grew up as a Swiss-French dual citizen near Basel, Switzerland, surrounded by the sounds of Earth, Wind & Fire, Serge Gainsbourg, and Verdi. He began taking piano lessons as a child and discovered the electric bass at the age of 17. His love and passion for the instrument led him to immerse himself deeply in both live and recorded music. Over the years, he has performed with various bands and projects across the globe, from Toronto to Budapest, with stops in New York, London, Paris, and Berlin.
Joël has been a permanent member of the Swiss art-pop band The bianca Story, with whom he co-wrote and recorded the album Coming Home in 2010 at Abbey Road Studios in London. After winning the Basel Pop Award in 2010, the band signed with Tim Renner’s label MOTOR MUSIC in Berlin. In 2013, they achieved a milestone in European music crowdfunding, raising €90,000 for their album DIGGER.
This success in the GSA music scene (Germany, Switzerland, Austria) was followed by involvement in numerous music theater productions, including M & The Acid Monks (2012) and Gilgamesh Must Die! (2014) at Deutsche Oper Berlin, Peter Pan (2015) at Bühnen Bern, Hunderte Kinder in wildem Kampf (2021) at Schauburg Munich, and several productions at Theater Basel, such as Die Drei Räuber (2017), Herr der Diebe (2018), and Wiederauferstehung der Vögel (2020).
Joël holds a Master of Arts in Music from the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK), where he graduated with honors in both his bachelor’s and master’s studies. He is active as a live and studio bass player, musical director, composer, and producer. He is also a member of CLUB FÜR MELODIEN, a Switzerland-based three-person artist collective dedicated to music, theater, and film projects.
When not touring, Joël teaches bass and piano and serves as an instructor at the Zurich University of the Arts. He splits his time between Berlin and Basel.