The bass-baritone René Schirrer began his singing career in Strasbourg, where he pursued literary and classical studies, continuing at the Basle Music Academy with Derrick Olsen and at the Salzburg Mozarteum with Heinrich Pflanzl and Kim Borg. After a period with the Groupe Vocal de France, he joined the Lyons opera studio, to enter the company of the Opéra de Lyon, where he was a member from 1983 to 1989, undertaking a variety of rôles. He has been a regular guest at the Strasbourg Opera of the Rhine. Other engagements have taken him to the Paris Opéra Comique, the Théâtre du Châtelet, and to leading opera houses throughout France. His rôles have included that of Brander in La Damnation de Faust in a production under Yannis Kokkos in Strasbourg, as well as in Geneva and elsewhere in concert, where he boasts a wide repertoire. He enjoys an active career in the concert hall and has collaborated in a number of recordings.