After solid studies in organ (with Susan Landale and Odile Bailleux) and writing (Yvonne Desportes' class), Yves Sotin joined the CNSM in Paris to pursue studies in Music History (Yves Gérard's class), Analysis (Betsy Jolas' class) and Early Music (William Christie's class). In counterpoint to all this, he works on singing with Jeannine Collard (mezzo soprano of the Paris Opera), David Pollard (professor at Guildhall School), Richard Miller (professor at the University of Oberlin in the USA), Irène Joachim (French repertoire work including the role of Pelléas). Very quickly, and in parallel with his career as an organist and singer, Yves Sotin turned towards pedagogy (he holds the C.A. de Chant) and became passionate about the great vocal traditions (both those of the Baroque period and those that developed throughout the 19th century) and the vast repertoire related to them. At a very young age, he taught in renowned regional conservatories (Angers, Toulouse) and later at the CRR of St Maur des Fossés, as well as at the Maitrise de Notre Dame de Paris, and at the CRR of Paris, where he trained many singers, some of them very prominent.
In 2005, the Ministry of Culture entrusted him with the task of preparing singing teachers for the Board of Directors. In 2012, Yves Sotin was appointed singing teacher at the CNSM in Paris. He has led numerous singing masterclasses (Haute Ecole de GenèveNeuchâtel, Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles, University of Angers, Lille, Poitiers, Salle de l'Institut d'Orléans, Centre Polyphonique de Bretagne...) During his entire career, Yves Sotin has been researching to increase pedagogy, in terms of phoniatry, speech and body disciplines and the history of the Bel Canto. He gives numerous conferences on topics such as vocal physiology, body postures and singing, the use of breath... He also gave a major lecture at the Conservatoire Supérieur de Genève on "Schubert's Song and German Romanticism". In 2017, he gave a lecture at the Hector Berlioz Media Library of the CNSM in Paris on "Les Méthodes et Traités de Chant du Conservatoire de Paris au XIXe siècle". In 2018, he again took a course session in Geneva on "The art of castration and its extension into the Bel Canto of the 19th century."
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