Bernhard Ruchti

Bernhard Ruchti (born in 1974 in Berkeley, California, USA) is a Swiss pianist, organist, composer and music researcher. Life Ruchti studied piano with Eckart Heiligers and organ with Rudolf Scheidegger, Stefan Johannes Bleicher, and Bernhard Haas. Since 2013, he has been organist at the ev.-ref. Stadtkirche St. Laurenzen in St. Gallen. During his time as a student he became interested in the performance practice and playing technique of the 19th century. Inspired by his studies with Bernhard Haas, he published an essay “Thoughts on the stimulation of organ playing by a pianistic playing technique” in 2006. In 2010 and 2011, Ruchti spent a sabbatical in the United States and lived in San Francisco for 10 months. He began composing music and wrote a number of piano pieces, including “Five Songs of The Wind.” These were released on his album “Liszt & The Black Hills” in 2012. He released another album of his own works (“Echoes from Chrysospilia”) in 2017. In 2017 he was awarded by the city of St. Gallen with the Förderpreis Kultur. In 2018, the world premiere of his choral cantata “Auf die Tiefe: ein irdisch Fahrtenlied” on a text by Bernd Gonner took place. The same year, he began h