Marie Micheline Dany Charpentier-Leroy
Lecturer for French for Singers
charpentier-leroy@mdw.ac.at

Born in Paris, Marie Charpentier-Leroy teaches French, phonetics and French diction at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (MdW). In addition to being a language coach, author and soloist, she is also a member of the famous Arnold Schönberg Choir and regularly participates in productions at Theater an der Wien.

After completing her master's degree in French literature, the mezzo-soprano studied opera singing at the Paris Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris. Parallel to her solo vocal studies at the CNSMDP, she studied musicology at La Sorbonne University in Paris. After obtaining her diploma in singing (Diplôme National Supérieur Professionnel de Musicien - DNSPM) as well as her master's degree in musicology, her enthusiasm for musicals and operetta prompted her to continue her studies in this field for an additional year.

After having the chance to study in Austria for a year as part of a study program, she moved to Vienna, where she has been pursuing her two passions ever since: music and teaching French. Since then, she regularly participates in opera projects in France as well as in Austria, most notably with the Arnold Schönberg Choir, with whom she performs in numerous performances worldwide (Theater an der Wien, Musikverein, Opéra Comique de Paris, Opéra Royal de Versailles, Berliner Festspiele, Hong-Kong City Hall of China...), as well as in the Vienna Volksoper Choir. She also works regularly as a language coach for opera productions.

As a French teacher, in addition to her work at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, she is also a teacher at the Matura School Dr. Roland, where she prepares candidates for the Externistenreifeprüfung (AHS-Matura). She was also a language trainer for French in the corporate sector (Kapsch, Siemens, E-Control, Infoscreen, among others) for eight years, as well as an examiner for the French language diploma (DELF), issued by the Institut Français de Vienne (A1-B2), for five years.

In the field of cabaret and theater, Marie Charpentier-Leroy has written and directed several musical theater pieces for singer/actress and piano in Paris and Vienna: Je te veux (2013), C'est la vie! (2019, revived in 2023) and Souvenirs d'une rose - Memories of a Rose (2023).

In addition to her artistic activities, she is also active in musicology, especially in the field of 19th and 20th century French chanson. The publication of her study Aux sources de la chanson réaliste, about the "realistic chanson" and its origins, was published by "Aedam Musicae" in 2022.