Born in Guadeloupe, Yannis François began his career as a dancer with Lena Blou. He entered the École-Atelier Rudra Béjart in Lausanne and later became a member of the Béjart Ballet (Compagnie M). During the singing lessons which were a part of this dance school studies, Maurice Béjart was impressed by Yannis’ voice and encouraged him to fully explore a singing career parallel to the ballet. He studied with Gary Magby and graduated with his Master’s degree in Classical Singing at the Conservatoire de Lausanne (CH).

On the opera stage, Yannis has sung the title role in Don Giovanni by Mozart; Curio in Giulio Cesare beside Andreas Scholl; Peter Quince in A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Britten; Sasha in Moscow, Cheryomushki by Shostakovitch; Melisso in Alcina by Händel; Isacius in Richard Primus by Telemann (Giessen, Michael Hofstetter); Seneca in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea and Plutone in Orfeo, both with Leonardo Garcìa-Alarcòn; the title-role in Eights Songs for a Mad King by Peter Maxwell Davies; Sorceress in Dido and Aeneas in Staatsoper, Berlin (Sasha Walz, Akademie für Alte MusikBerlin); Le chef des Matelots in Alcione by Marais conducted by Jordi Savall in Opéra de Versailles; and Gaveston in La Dame Blanche by Boieldieu.

In concert, he has sung the Bass Solo part in several oratorios, such as Mass in B minor (Vaclav Luks, Collegium 1704) and Johannes-Passion by J.S Bach (Ton Koopman); Schumann’s Das Paradies und die Peri; and this season, Mozart’s Requiem with the Philharmonie de Paris. He has appeared as a soloist with other conductors such as Ottavio Dantone, Gabriel Garrido, Christina Pluhar, Paul Agnew, Sébastien Daucé, and Lars Ulrich Mortensen, among others.

From 2019, Yannis was mentored by Barbara Hannigan in her Equilibrium Young Artists programme and sang Nick Shadow in Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress in Brussels, California, and Aldeburgh, conducted by Hannigan herself.

One of his projects in 2021 was Lucifer in Cain overo, Il Primo Omicidio by Scarlatti at the Salzburg Festival, conducted by Philippe Jaroussky.

Next season he will sing Mercury in Cupid and Death by Matthew Locke with Ensemble Correspondances (Sebastien Daucé) in the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord and Opéra de Caen, then in Le Malade imaginaire (Charpentier) and Le Mariage forcé (Lully) with Le Concert Spirituel (Hervé Niquet).

Given his passion and knowledge of forgotten or rare music repertoires, Yannis is regularly hired to search and create CD programmes for artists such as Jakub Józef Orliński (Anima Sacra, Facced’Amore, Anima Aeterna), Philippe Jaroussky (La Vanità del mondo), Julie Fuchs (Mademoiselle), Michael Spyres, Jeanine de Bique, Bruno de Sà (Roma Travestita), and Lea Desandre (Amazone).

He is the founder of Editions Charybde & Scylla.