Switzerland on Music Theory Print

Adolf Reichel

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Adolf Reichel (30 August 1816 – 5 March 1896) was a German-Swiss orchestral conductor and composer. Life Adolf Reichel was a son of an East Elbian German landowning family in Tursnitz, West Prussia (now Turznice in Poland). He studied composition with Siegfried Dehn in Berlin, piano with Ludwig Berger and instrumentation with Carl Gottlieb Reissiger in Dresden. He found his first job as music teacher to the young hereditary prince Georg von Sachsen-Meiningen. He travelled to Vienna, Bern and Brussels and made a living as a piano teacher in Paris from 1844, where he associated with George Sand and Frédéric Chopin. In 1842, he met the professional revolutionary and anarchist Mikhail Bakunin in Dresden, with whom he had a lifelong friendship. In his circle in Paris he met opposition figures such as Georg Herwegh, Gottfried Kinkel, Karl Marx, Georg Weber, Vasily Petrovich Botkin, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon and Richard Wagner, without himself taking an active part in the 1848 Revolution. In 1850, he and Mariya Kasparovna Ern (1823–1916), whom he had met as an associate of Alexander Herzen, married. They had four sons, one of whom was the later Swiss judge and politician Alexander Reichel. I

Albert Fuchs

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Albert Fuchs (born 6 August 1858 in Basel; died 15 February 1910 in Dresden; full name: Leonhard Johann Heinrich Albert Fuchs) was a Swiss-German composer, conductor, music educator, and music critic, as well as a collector of historical musical instruments. Life and work Fuchs was the son of a master bookbinder born in 1806, working in Basel, whose father came from Mannheim, where he was a tobacco manufacturer. Fuchs’ mother was born in 1834. Albert Fuchs attended gymnasium in Basel. Even at this time, he received musical training, which he deepened from 1876 to 1879 in Leipzig at the Conservatorium of Music. His final polish was given by the music theorist Salomon Jadassohn and the composer and pianist Carl Reinecke, completing their training with distinction. Reinecke was at that time the director of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. Just three years later, he retired to Saxony. In Oberlößnitz outside the gates of the residence city Dresden, he acquired a vineyard for a few years (today known as Haus Steinbach), on which he “realized his compositional plans”. At the end of the 1880s, Fuchs acquired the Conservatory originally founded by Wilhelm Freudenberg and bankrupt under Ott

Albert Moeschinger

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Albert Moeschinger (10 January 1897 – 25 September 1985) was a Swiss composer. Life Born in Basel, Moeschinger, son of a merchant, completed his musical studies in Bern, Leipzig (composition with Paul Graener, piano with Robert Teichmüller) and Munich (composition with Walter Courvoisier). After several seasons as an ensemble pianist in café houses, Moeschinger settled in Bern, where he taught privately as a piano and theory teacher, and from 1937 also at the University of the Arts Bern, and resumed his compositional activities. In 1943, health problems led him to settle in the Valais mountain village of Saas Fee. From this time on, he devoted himself exclusively to composition. Reading Thomas Mann’s musical novel Dr. Faustus and the subsequent correspondence with the writer in 1948 encouraged him to integrate the twelve-tone technique into his work. After 1956, Moeschinger lived mainly in Ascona. He spent the rest of his life in Thun, where he died on 25 September 1985 at the age of 88. Moeschinger’s oeuvre, which includes all genres except opera, comprises over 400 titles. He received the following awards: in 1952 the , in 1957 the composition prize of the “Schweizerischer Tonkün

Alexandre Rabinovitch-Barakovsky

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Alexandre Rabinovitch-Barakovsky (; born 30 March 1945) is a Russian-born composer, conductor and classical pianist who lives in Switzerland. He is one of the first composers of minimalism (from 1969); “La Belle Musique N.3” (1977) is the first work for orchestra in the minimalist field. He emigrated to Paris from Moscow in 1974, and now lives in Switzerland. He has collaborated with numerous musical artists, notably with the pianist Martha Argerich, with whom he has recorded works by Rachmaninoff and Brahms. Selected works Alexandre Rabinovitch-Barakovsky defined his musical conceptions as >. Rabinovitch-Barakovsky’s main works are all part of a global work-in-progress called “Anthology of Archaic Rituals – In Search of the Center”. * “Les mots de Andrei Biely” (1969) cantata * “Le point d’appui trouvé” (1970) chamber music * “Happy end”" (1972) electro-acoustic piece * “La Belle Musique n°2” (1974) chamber music * “Perpetuum mobile?” (1975) amplified violin solo, amplified piano, amplified vibraphone" (+ amplified campanelli) * “Le récit de voyage” (1976) violin, cello, marimba, piano" (dedicated to Alexei Lubimov) * “La Belle Musique n°3” (1977) for orchestra * “Requiem pour une

Alfons Karl Zwicker

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Alfons Karl Zwicker (born 22 April 1952) is a Swiss composer, pianist and painter. Life Born in St. Gallen, Zwicker began as a painter and designer. He created several paintings, which were exhibited between 1973 and 1980. Zwicker then studied piano from 1976 to 1981 with Hadassa Schwimmer at Zurich University of the Arts and from 1983 to 1987 with Werner Bärtschi in Zurich. From 1984 to 1988 he studied musical composition with Rudolf Kelterborn at the City of Basel Music Academy. With them he realized a music project for Paul Klee. In the context of the project he composed for the the work «Unter dem Grabhügel» (“Under the Grave Mound”) for saxophone and orchestra, which was performed with the soloist Vincent Daoud (saxophone) under the direction of Otto Tausk was premiered on 20 February 2015 in the Tonhalle St. Gallen. He completed a postgraduate course in Arts Management at the University of Basel in 2002 with a Master of Advanced Studies. Awards * 1989: Kulturförderungspreis der Stadt St. Gallen (for contribution to the music podium Contrapunkt) * 2012: – endowed with CHF 20,000 (for experimental music theatre and impressive stage productions) Works Stage music Operas * Die Hö

André Ducret

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André Ducret (4 June 1945 – 1 February 2025) was a Swiss singer, composer, choir conductor and teacher. Life and career Born in Fribourg on 4 June 1945, Ducret was gifted a tenor voice and performed as a soloist in works composed by , , and Émile Gardaz. He then founded the Chœur des XVI, which he directed from 1970 to 2018. In 1980, he participated in the Étoile d’or competition, organized by Télévision Suisse Romande, in which he won first prize with the work Noël à danser, performed by the Chœur de Sainte-Thérèse. In 2004, he participated in an international competition in Barcelona and was a finalist, which preceded his victory in the Association faîtière européenne. As a teacher at the Collège Saint-Michel, he developed methods for reading music. On 4 June 2007, an exhibition of his works was opened at the Cantonal and University Library of Fribourg, which displayed nearly 500 works. A book titled André Ducret, compositeur, chef de chœur et pédagogue was published for the occasion. In 2013, the association Plans Fixe released a report dedicated to him. In 2022, a biographical work on him was written by Philippe Rolle. Ducret died on 1 February 2025, at the age of 79. Reference

Andree Rochat

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Andree Aeschlimann Rochat (12 January 1900 – 8 January 1990) was a Swiss composer, music critic, and pianist who used the pseudonym Jean Durand. She spent more than forty years in Milan, where she wrote music reviews in several magazines, which were later published as a collection. Rochat composed music for small ensembles, and was awarded the GEDOK prize. She destroyed many of her compositions. Life Rochat was born in Geneva, Switzerland, to Julie Helene Lavater and Ernest Auguste Rochat, a pastor. She married Erhard Aeschlimann, a publisher. In 1941, the reviews were published as a collection entitled Journal d’un Amateur de Musique. Rochat composed mostly atonal music for small ensembles. In 1961, her composition Musica per Archi, opus 26, received the GEDOK (Gemeinschaft deutscher und oesterreichischer Künstlerinnen und Kunstfreundinnen; Community of German and Austrian Women Artists and Art Friends) prize. Although she composed works through at least opus 34, *Improvisation, opus 34 (flute, piano and drums) *Tre Liriche, opus 19 (soprano and piano; text by Antonio Negri) References

Anne Lauber

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Anne Lauber (born 28 July 1943) is a Canadian composer, conductor, and music educator. A member of the Canadian League of Composers and an associate of the Canadian Music Centre, she has been commissioned to write works by the Quebec Symphony Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Canadian Music Competitions, the Canada Council, and the Ministère des Affaires culturelles du Québec among many other groups. In 1985 she was awarded first prize for her Arabesque at the International Guitar Competition in Marl, Germany. She became a naturalized Canadian citizen in 1972. In 2007 the Eastman School of Music featured her in the school’s Women in Music Festival. Her son Tristan Lauber is a successful concert pianist. Education and work as a teacher Born in Zürich, Switzerland, Lauber studied the violin and piano privately before entering the Lausanne Conservatory in 1964 on a scholarship from the Association des musiciens suisses. She studied there through 1967 where she was a pupil of Andras Kovach and Zoltán Kodály. At the same time she studied music composition privately with Jean Perrin and Darius Milhaud. In 1967 Lauber came to Canada to pursue studies in music composition priv

Anthony Cedric Vuagniaux

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Anthony Cedric Vuagniaux (born April 27, 1977 in Geneva, Switzerland, ) is a multi-instrumentalist composer. He is the founder of Plombage Records and produces his own movies. Anthony Cedric Vuagniaux has been described in media sources as an “Unidentified flying object” of cinematography and electronic music. He writes, performs, records, mixes, and masters his compositions in his studio with rare musical instruments of all ethnicities, synthesizers, organs and old analog tape recorders. Biography At the age of six, Anthony Cedric Vuagniaux falls on his uncle’s old synthesizer Roland. That day, he discovers a great fascination for sounds. His mother subscribes him to the Geneva Conservatory. The boy continued to compose by himself with his synthesizer, other instruments and tape recorder. These first devices allowed him to work his music in his studio. In 1991 he founded a rock band. He also composed and performed as a drummer for Desdemona in the first concert parts of such groups Dionysos (French band) and Astonvilla (French bands). an electronic music project revealed in the albums : Rendez-vous chez le dentiste and Foufounes Alkantara mastered by the Björk and Daft Punk London

Arthur Honegger

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Oscar-Arthur Honegger (; 10 March 1892 – 27 November 1955) was a Swiss composer who was born in France and lived a large part of his life in Paris. Honegger was a member of Les Six. For Halbreich, Jeanne d’Arc au bûcher is “more even than Le Roi David or Pacific 231, his most universally popular work”. Biography Born Oscar-Arthur Honegger (the first name was never used) to Swiss parents in Le Havre, France, he initially studied harmony with Robert-Charles Martin (to whom he dedicated his first published work ) and violin in Le Havre. He then moved to Switzerland, where he spent two years (September 1909 – June 1911) at the Zurich Conservatory being taught by Lothar Kempter and Friedrich Hegar. In 1911, he enrolled in the Paris Conservatoire from 1911 to 1918 (except for a brief period during the winter of 1914–1915, when he was mobilised in Switzerland), studying with Charles-Marie Widor, Lucien Capet, André Gédalge and Vincent d’Indy. Gédalge encouraged him to compose and Honegger announced his decision to become a composer in a letter to his parents dated 28 April 1915. He then praised his teacher Gédalge and his Traité de la fugue (1904), “the most complete work ever written on

Beat Furrer

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Beat Furrer (born 6 December 1954) is a Swiss-born Austrian composer and conductor. He has served as professor of composition at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz since 1991. He was awarded the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize in 2018. Biography Born in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, Furrer relocated to Vienna in 1975 to pursue studies with Roman Haubenstock-Ramati (composition) and Otmar Suitner (conducting) at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. In 1985 he co-founded what is now one of Europe’s leading contemporary music ensembles, Klangforum Wien, which he still conducts. Recent awards and honors include the Music Prize of the City of Vienna in 2003 and the Golden Lion, for the monodrama “FAMA”, at the 2006 Venice Biennale. Since 1991, he has served as professor of composition at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz. Furrer is co-founder and chairman of “impuls”, an International Ensemble and Composers Academy for Contemporary Music. The 25th anniversary of the Klangforum Wien was celebrated in 2010 at the Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik with the premiere of his Xenos-Szenen for eight voices and ensemble. Works Since 1989, Furrer’s main pro

Bernhard Ruchti

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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

Bruno Spoerri

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Bruno Alexander Spoerri (born 16 August 1935) is a Swiss jazz and electronics musician. Born in Zurich, he studied applied psychology in Basel and Zurich. He played the saxophone as a student and toured with the Modern Jazz Group Freiburg in Germany and Switzerland. In the early 1960s, he worked as a psychologist and career counsellor. He experimented with an electrified saxophone and published the album Voice of Taurus in 1978. Discography * Jazz-Rock Experience (Deram, 1970) * Glückskugel (Finders Keepers Records, 1971–1980) * Container (1976) * Voice of Taurus (Gold Records/Inzec, 1978) * Toy Planet with Irmin Schmidt (Spoon Records, 1981) * AX+BY+CZ+D=0 (1983) * Zürich Tenors (FFO 1983, with Ernst Gerber, Fernando Fantini, Richard Lipiec, Umberto Foletti, Rolf Cizmek, Hans Brunner) * Albert Mangelsdorff - Bruno Spoerri - Christy Doran - Reto Weber: Shake, Shuttle and Blow (Enja, 1999) Awards * Jazz Festival Zürich 1954: First Prize for Saxophone and Band * Jazz Festival Düsseldorf (Deutschland) 1956: Second Prize for Alto Saxophone with Modern Jazz Group Freiburg * Jazz Festival Zürich 1958: First Prize for Bigband * International Advertising Film Festival Cannes 1965: First Pr

Carl Greith

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Carl Greith, also Karl Greith (21 February 182817 November 1887), was a Swiss composer and church musician. Life Emil Franz Carl Greith came into the world on 21 February 1828 in Aarau, Switzerland, as the oldest son among the six children of the Swiss composer and music educator Franz Josef Greith (1799-1869). Carl was described as a musically highly gifted child, who followed in his father’s footsteps and often took his place in church as a musician. After completing a classical education with distinction at the Gymnasium level he was a capable Latinist, an ability that was invaluable to him later as a church composer. Because of his outstanding drive and musical gift, his father Greith and his oldest sister Rosa (1826-1913), who at the time was active as a piano teacher in St. Gallen, made possible his music study in Munich. In the autumn of 1845 he traveled to the cathedral city with his father, who had chosen for him the best teachers of their field in what was then the center of Catholic church music, Caspar Ett (1788–1847), who revived classic church music (for the study of harmony and counterpoint) and the respected organ master Johann Georg Herzog (1822–1909). From 1845 to

Carlo Evasio Soliva

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Carlo Evasio Soliva (27 November 1791 – 20 December 1853) was a Swiss-Italian composer of opera, chamber music, and sacred choral works. Soliva was born in Casale Monferrato, Piedmont to a family of Swiss chocolatiers who had emigrated from the canton of Ticino. He studied pianoforte and composition at the Milan Conservatory. A contemporary of Gioacchino Rossini, he is best known for his 1816 opera La testa di bronzo (“The head of bronze”), which prompted Stendhal’s immediate enthusiasm: “Ce petit Soliva a la figure chétive d’un homme de génie.” (“That little Soliva has the scanty figure of a man of genius.”) After a life spent composing, teaching, and conducting in Italy, Poland, Russia, Switzerland, and France, he died in Paris at the age of 62. The “Carlo Evasio Soliva Competition for Piano and Chamber Music,” organized by the Istituto Musicale Soliva, is held annually in the town of his birth. Professional life At the Milan Conservatory, he was at the top of his class. He soon became a conductor at La Scala and “drew inspiration for his music from Mozart, whose music was then fashionable in Milan,” his operas being performed frequently from 1807 onwards. When La Scala organized

Caroline Charrière

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Caroline Charrière (26 December 1960 – 1 October 2018) was a Swiss composer, conductor, flautist and educator. From 2000 on she concentrated on composing, creating chamber music, choral music and orchestral pieces. In 2001, she established her reputation as a composer with the oratorio Le livre de Job (The Book of Job) for mixed choir, bass, soprano and orchestra. Her works have since been performed widely in Switzerland and abroad. Biography Born in Fribourg, Charrière studied transverse flute at the Lausanne Conservatory under Pierre Wavre, earning diplomas in teaching (1982) and concert performance (1984). She also began studying orchestration and composition in Lausanne under Jean Balissat, followed by post-graduate study at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, England. She received her orchestral conducting diploma from the Lausanne Conservatory in 1994. Charrière taught the flute at the Fribourg Conservatory, established the “Choeur de Jade”, a female choir, became the director of other Fribourg choirs and composed her own works. As a result of increasing interest in her compositions, in 2000 she decided to concentrate first and foremost on composing. Charrière

Charlotte Ruegger

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Charlotte Ruegger (17 November 187616 June 1959) was a Swiss composer, conductor, violinist, and music educator who taught at several colleges in the United States. She received Belgium’s Medal for Bravery for her service during World War I. Early life Ruegger was born in Lucerne to a musical family. Her father Julius was a government official. Her mother was a music teacher, her sister Elsa Ruegger was known as the “world’s best cello player”, and her sister Valeria taught piano. The family moved to Belgium during Ruegger’s childhood, and she graduated from the University of Brussels at age 16, although girls were not awarded diplomas at the time. She won first prize in violin at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Brussels, then continued postgraduate work in Italy at the University of Florence and in Berlin at the Stern Conservatory. Her teachers included Jean-Baptiste Colyns, Cesar Thomson (she also worked as his assistant), and Florian Zajic. Career Ruegger presented violin recitals throughout Belgium, France, Germany, and Switzerland before going to America in 1913, where she taught violin at Oberlin Conservatory. In 1926, she was a faculty member of the summer assembly at Bay

Christian Benda

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Christian Benda is a conductor, composer and cellist, descended from the eighteenth-century Benda family of composers. He performs worldwide both as a soloist and a conductor. His numerous recordings include many classical standards such as Mozart, Rossini and Schubert overtures (notably, performances of Boccherini cello sonatas, with his brother accompanying on the fortepiano, for the Naxos label) as well as the compositions of his ancestors Georg Anton (Jiří Antonín) Benda, František Benda and Jan Jiří Benda. (Another ancestor of his was the conductor Hans von Benda, who was particularly active between the 1930s and the 1950s.) He is chief conductor and artistic director of the Prague Sinfonia. Between 2012 and 2014 he recorded a four-volume cycle of Gioacchino Rossini’s complete operatic overtures for Naxos Records with the Prague Sinfonia Orchestra. He was a Climate Ally in the “Tck Tck Tck: Time for Climate Justice” campaign. References External links *Benda’s Home page *ChristianBendaVEVO

Conrad Beck

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Conrad Arthur Beck (16 June 1901 – 31 October 1989) was a Swiss composer. Life and works Beck’s stay in Paris between 1924 and 1933 proved crucial to his artistic development, where he studied with Jacques Ibert and also made contact with Arthur Honegger, Nadia Boulanger, and Albert Roussel. Returning to Basel in 1933, he headed the music department of Radio Basel for the next thirty years. He helped mediate cultural exchange through his many contacts with Swiss and international musicians. At the suggestion of Swiss conductor Paul Sacher (1906–1999), who promoted his career more than any other composer, Beck settled in Basel in 1934. During a period of over 50 years, Sacher commissioned his works and conducted their premieres with the chamber orchestra Basler Kammerorchester and the Collegium Musicum Zürich. From 1939 to 1966 Beck worked as music director of Swiss Radio in Basel, a position that enabled him to do a great deal to promote contemporary music. On the occasion of Paul Sacher’s 70th birthday, Beck was asked, together with 11 composer friends (Luciano Berio, Pierre Boulez, Benjamin Britten, Henri Dutilleux, Wolfgang Fortner, Alberto Ginastera, Cristóbal Halffter, Hans We

Constantin Brăiloiu

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Constantin Brăiloiu (13 August 1893 – 20 December 1958) was a Romanian composer and internationally known ethnomusicologist. He was born in Bucharest, the scion of an old boyar family from Oltenia. His father, Nicolae Brăiloiu, and his grandfather, Constantin N. Brăiloiu, were both lawyers and politicians. Constantin Brăiloiu studied in Bucharest (1901–1907), Vienna (1907–1909), Vevey and Lausanne (1909–1912), as well as Paris (1912–1914). In 1920, he founded the Societatea Compozitorilor Români (SCR, Society of Romanian Composers) along with other composers, and he served as general secretary of the organization between 1926 and 1943. In 1928, he initiated the composer’s collective Arhiva de folklore (folklore archive), which soon became one of the largest folk music archives of its time. From 1928 he and sociology professor Dimitrie Gusti visited the various regions of Romania in order to make sound recordings. In 1931, he published the article “Schița unei metode de folclor muzical” (Sketch of a method for music folklore), which became one of the foundational texts for ethnomusicology. In 1943, he became cultural consultant for the Romanian embassy in Bern. Due to the political

Daniel Glaus

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Daniel Glaus (born 16 July 1957 in Bern) is a Swiss organist and composer. He is currently professor at the Zurich University of the Arts, the University of the Arts Bern and organist of the Bern Cathedral. Life Glaus studied in Bern, Freiburg im Breisgau and Paris. He studied music theory (Theo Hirsbrunner), composition Klaus Huber, Brian Ferneyhough), organ (Heinrich Gurtner, Gaston Litaize, Daniel Roth, Luigi Ferdinando Tagliavini, Harald Vogel, Gerd Zacher) and direction (Erich Schmid). So far he has worked as a composer, church musician (City Church of Biel, Berner Münster) and is professor at the Zurich University of the Arts for composition and instrumentation, and at the University of the Arts Bern for organ and composition. Glaus also performs internationally as an organist and is involved in organ building. For example, as part of his research project Innov-Organ-um, he and his team developed a wind-dynamic organ in which the dynamics, timbre and pitch can be influenced by simply controlling the keys. Co-initiator of the IV International Congress for Church Music Ittingen 1997 as a continuation of the three church music congresses in Bern 1952, 1962 and 1972. Glaus was in

Daniel Ott

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Daniel Ott (born 6 September 1960) is a Swiss composer. Career Born in Grub AR, Canton of Appenzell Ausserrhoden, Ott graduated in 1980. Afterwards he worked as a teacher in the regions of Basel and Graubünden and worked in independent theatre groups. From 1983 to 1985, he studied theatre in Paris and London. From 1985 to 1990, he studied composition with Nicolaus A. Huber at the Folkwang University of the Arts and with Klaus Huber at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg. Since 1990, Daniel Ott has been working as a freelance composer, pianist and performer with a focus on new music theatre and interdisciplinary and space and landscape-related works. In 1999/2000, Ott created the full-length music theatre cycle ojota I-IV. In 2000 he wrote klangkörperklang - music for the by Peter Zumthor. This was followed by landscape compositions for the harbour Sassnitz/Rügen (2002), the place of pilgrimage Heiligkreuz/Entlebuch (2003), the river Neisse between Görlitz and Zgorzelec (2005) and the Rhine port of Basel (2006). From 1995 to 2004, Ott held a teaching position for experimental music at the Universität der Künste Berlin, where he founded the KlangKunstBühne summer academy in 2003. Since

Daniel Schnyder

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Daniel Schnyder (born March 12, 1961) is a Swiss jazz reedist and composer of both jazz and classical music. Schnyder learned to play cello before saxophone. He attended Berklee College of Music and the Conservatory of Winterthur. He has recorded for Enja Records and composes pieces which meld jazz and classical music. His work has been published by Hal Leonard, Universal Edition, and Edition Kunzelmann; he has been commissioned by Vienna Art Orchestra, , Opera Philadelphia, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and Berlin Philharmonic. Sidemen on his albums include Michael Philip Mossman, Marvin “Smitty” Smith, Kenny Drew Jr., Dave Taylor, Adam Taubitz, Michael Formanek, and Mark Feldman. He has also worked with Flavio Ambrosetti, Lee Konitz, and Abdullah Ibrahim. Discography * Secret Cosmos (Enja, 1988) * The City (Enja, 1989) * Decoding the Message (Enja, 1990) * Mythen (Koch, 1991) * Mythology (Enja 1991) * Granulat with Mossman (Red, 1991) * Nucleus (Enja, 1995) * Tarantula (Enja, 1996) * Words Within Music (Enja, 1999) * Jazz Meets Weill and Gershwin with Kurt Weill, David Taylor, Kenny Drew Jr. (Koch, 2000) * Songbook with Kenny Drew Jr., Kristjan Jaervi, Symphony Orchestra of Norrla

Édouard Du Puy

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Jean Baptiste Édouard Louis Camille Du Puy (17703 April 1822) was a Principality of Neuchâtel-born singer, composer, director, and violinist. He lived and worked in Copenhagen and Stockholm from 1793 until his death in 1822. Early years Édouard Du Puy was born in Corcelles-Cormondrèche, Principality of Neuchâtel, around the year 1770, although sources differ on the exact year. From the age of four, he was raised by his uncle, a city musician in Geneva, Republic of Geneva. Edouard later took the last name of this uncle. Seeing that his nephew had talent, the uncle made sure that Edouard received a musicial education. In 1786, Du Puy was sent to Paris, where he was taught to play the piano by Jan Ladislav Dussek, and the violin by François Chabran. In 1789, he was appointed concertmaster at the court of Heinrich of Prussia in Rheinsberg, replacing J. A. P. Schulz, who was called to Denmark as a choir director at the Royal Danish Orchestra (Danish: Det Kongelige Kapel). Du Puy worked in Rheinsberg for four years while studying harmonies under Carl Friedrich Christian Fasch. Stockholm and Copenhagen Still in his early twenties, in 1793 Du Puy traveled throughout the Holy Roman Empire,

Émile-Robert Blanchet

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Émile-Robert Blanchet (17 July 1877 in Lausanne, Switzerland – 27 March 1943 in Pully, Switzerland) was a French-speaking Swiss pianist, composer and mountaineer. Life He was taught by his father, Charles Blanchet, the organist of a cathedral in Lausann and a pupil of Ignaz Moscheles, and Hauptmann. He later attended Cologne Conservatory and was a pupil of Busoni in Weimar and Berlin. He was professor of piano 1904-1917, then director 1905-1908 of the Lausanne Conservatory. He continued teaching there until 1917. In 1917 he resigned and spent time on climbing on which he would write 2 books. There is a CD at this address where a piece of his is recorded. * On Columbia Masterworks Ervin Nyiregyházi , available on YouTube as well. References External links * Émile Robert Blanchet * * List of compositions * A biography about him

Ernest Bloch

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Ernest Bloch (; ; July 24, 1880 – July 15, 1959) was a Swiss-born American composer. Several of his most notable compositions reflect his Jewish heritage. As well as producing musical scores, Bloch had an academic career that culminated in his recognition as Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley in 1952. Biography Bloch was born in Geneva on July 24, 1880, to Jewish parents. He began playing the violin at age 9, and began composing soon after. He studied music at the conservatory in Brussels, where his teachers included the celebrated Belgian violinist Eugène Ysaÿe. He then traveled around Europe, moving to Germany (where he studied composition from 1900 to 1901 with Iwan Knorr at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt), on to Paris in 1903 and back to Geneva before settling in the United States in 1916, taking US citizenship in 1924. He held several teaching appointments in the US, where his pupils included George Antheil, Frederick Jacobi, Quincy Porter, Bernard Rogers, and Roger Sessions. In 1917, Bloch became the first teacher of composition at the Mannes School of Music, a post he held for three years. In December 1920 he was appointed the first musical dire

Ernst Hess (composer)

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Ernst Hess (13 May 1912 – 2 November 1968) was a Swiss conductor, composer and musicologist. Career Born in Schaffhausen, Hess studied at the conservatory of Zurich from 1932 and 1934, and then at the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris, with Paul Dukas and Nadia Boulanger among others. From 1935 he worked in Switzerland as conductor of several choirs and orchestras. In 1938, he was appointed lecturer of music theory at the conservatory of Winterthur. From 1956, he taught musicology at the University of Zurich. As a composer, he wrote mostly sacred and secular choral music, namely the oratorio Jeremia. He was awarded the composition prize of the Conrad-Ferdinand-Meyer-Stiftung in 1947. In 1966 he received the Hans-Georg-Nägeli-Medaille of Zurich. Hess died in Egg and is buried at the Fluntern Cemetery in Zürich. Selected works * Suite for Guitar Solo (1935); Hug G.H. 11468 * Suite for Viola Solo, Op. 14 (1936) * Concerto for Viola, Cello and Chamber Orchestra, Op. 20 * Sinfonia academia (Kleine Sinfonia), Op. 22 * Concerto for Horn and Chamber Orchestra, Op. 24 * Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 27 * Kleine Musik, for basset horn, violin, viola and cello, Op. 29b (Amadeus Verla

Ernst Levy

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Ernst Levy (18 November 1895 – 19 April 1981) was a Swiss musicologist, composer, pianist and conductor. Life Born in Basel, Switzerland, Levy studied with Hans Huber, Egon Petri and Raoul Pugno. David Dubal describes him as an “unusual and powerful pianist” who made “grandly conceived” recordings of the late Beethoven sonatas and captured “the very essence of the Faustian Liszt”. His students included the composers Anna Renfer Hazel Ghazarian Skaggs. In 1966, he retired from academia and returned to his native Switzerland where he spent the remainder of his life. He died in Morges. Levy’s book A Theory of Harmony was published in 1985 and, among other modern compositional concepts, describes the composer’s concept of harmonic “undertones”. Levy’s son was composer and cellist Frank Ezra Levy (1930–2017). Selected compositions ;Orchestral * Symphony No. 2 in D major (1922) * Symphony No. 3 (1922) * Symphony No. 7 (1937) * Symphony No. 8 (1937) * Symphony No. 10 “France” (1944) * Symphony No. 11 (1949) * Symphony No. 12 (1951) * Symphony No. 13 (1955) * Third Suite for orchestra (1957) * Fourth Suite for orchestra (1959) * Symphony No. 14 (1962) * Symphony No. 15 (1968) ;Concertante

Fabian Müller (composer)

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Fabian Müller (*12 February 1964 in Zurich) is a Swiss composer. Biography Fabian Müller is one of the leading Swiss composers of his generation. He originally comes from Lengau in the canton of Aargau and grew up in Zurich as the son of Peter and Hella Müller-Heuer (daughter of Walter Heuer), a central figure in the area of German orthography. He first studied the cello with Claude Starck at the Zurich Conservatory, but then increasingly dedicated his energies to composition. He studied composition with Josef Haselbach at the Zurich Conservatory. After completing his studies, he spent four summers at the courses of the Aspen Music Festival (Colorado). While there, he studied with Jacob Druckman, Bernard Rands and George Tsontakis. He received decisive encouragement from David Zinman, who made a recording with the Philharmonia Orchestra, London, including “Nachtgesänge” with Swedish mezzo-soprano Malena Ernman, the Cello Concerto (1999), played by Müller’s wife, the Taiwanese cellist Pi-Chin Chien and two further orchestral works. Müller’s works are played internationally by well-known orchestras and ensembles and have been heard in halls such as the Carnegie Hall in New York, the

Fanny Hünerwadel

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Fanny Hünerwadel (26 January 1826 – 27 April 1854) was a Swiss pianist, singer and composer. She sang and performed in Zurich, Paris and London, but died of typhus at the age of 28. She wrote seven piano songs, some of which were published after her death. Life Hünerwadel was a native of Lenzburg where she was born on 26 January 1826, She made her debut as a pianist in 1842 at Lenzburg. In 1853 as part of her training, she traveled to Florence and Rome. In Florence, she took singing lessons with Romani. In Rome in 1853 she was guest of artists and families Corrodi Imhof and took lessons in singing teacher Parisotti. Hünerwadel died of typhus on 27 April 1854 in Rome at the age of 28. Liszt’s composition “à Fanny H.” is dedicated to Hünerwadel. Discography *MGB CD 6153: “Richard Wagner and his composer friends in Zurich”. Songs “Morning Song” and “Spring” by Fanny Hünerwadel. References Further reading In archives: * Peter Mieg-Stiftung in Lenzburg (Teilnachlass) * Introduction, Variations & Rondo, Klavierkomposition: im FMF (Frauen Musik Forum) in Bern. Other: * Biographisches Lexikon des Aargaus, 1803–1957, (1958): p. 371 f. * Répertoire international des sources musicales / Inter

Ferdinand Samuel Laur

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Ferdinand Samuel Laur (22 February 1791 – 2 July 1854) was a Swiss composer, conductor, choirmaster, and music teacher. He founded the Basel Choral Society in 1824. A hymnal he composed that was published in 1820 is now used in the national anthem of Lesotho, “Lesotho Fatse La Bontata Rona”. Career “Freiheit” (), a hymn he composed that was published in 1820 is now used in the national anthem of Lesotho, “Lesotho Fatse La Bontata Rona”. Between 1830 and 1840 he published the hymnbook Vierstimmige Chorgesänge und Chorlieder ohne Begleitung für Sopran, Alt, Tenor und Bass, für Kirchen, Schulen und Singanstalten. He founded the Basel Choral Society in 1824. Death Laur died in , near Kreuzlingen, Switzerland. Personal life Laur had a grandson, . References Further reading * Albert Burckhardt und Rudolf Wackernagel: Basler Jahrbuch 1890. C. Detloffs Buchhandlung, Basel 1890, S. 94. * Hermann Mendel: Musikalisches Conversations-Lexikon. Eine Encyklopädie der gesammten musikalischen Wissenschaften. Sechster Band. Robert Oppenheim, Berlin 1876, S. 263: https://archive.org/stream/musikalischesco09reisgoog#page/n270/mode/2up. * Albert Burckhardt und Rudolf Wackernagel: Basler Jahrbuch 1890.

François Pantillon

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François Pantillon (15 January 1928 – 14 February 2025) was a Swiss conductor, composer and violinist. He is particularly known as choral conductor and has directed the city choirs of Neuchâtel, Bern, and Bienne. From 1986 to 2011 he was the musical director of the City Orchestra of Thun. He was also a regular guest conductor of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande’s summer concerts. His compositions include the opera Die Richterin and the oratorio Clameurs du monde. Life and career Pantillon was born in La Chaux-de-Fonds to a musical family. His great-grandfather Zacharie was a violinist who had studied in Berlin under Joseph Joachim and was active in the musical life of La Chaux-de-Fonds, organizing concerts which brought Saint-Saëns, Massenet, and other prominent musicians to the city. His grandfather Georges-Albert was the author of a textbook on solfège which was widely used in the French-speaking schools of Switzerland. His father Georges-Louis (1896-1992), also a violinist and composer, was one of the founders of the Collège musical de La Chaux-de-Fonds (originally known as the Société Suisse de Pédagogie Musicale) and served as its director from 1947 to 1978. Taught by his fa

Frank Martin (composer)

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Frank Théodore Martin (15 September 1890 – 21 November 1974) was a Swiss composer who spent much of his life in the Netherlands. Childhood and youth Born into a Huguenot family in the Eaux-Vives quarter of Geneva, the youngest of the ten children of a Calvinist pastor named Charles Martin, Frank Martin started to improvise on the piano prior to his formal schooling. At the age of nine he had already written a few songs, without external musical instruction. At age 12, he attended a performance of Bach’s St Matthew Passion and was deeply affected by it. Respecting his parents’ wishes, he studied mathematics and physics for two years at Geneva University, but at the same time was also studying piano, composition and harmony with his first music teacher (1864–1953), a Geneva composer and by that time a leading figure of the city’s musical scene. In the 1920s, Martin worked closely with Émile Jaques-Dalcroze from whom he learned much about rhythm and musical theory. Between 1918 and 1926 Martin lived in Zürich, Rome and Paris. Compositions of this time show him searching for an authentic musical voice of his own. In 1926 he established the Chamber Music Society of Geneva, which for the

Franz Curti

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NOTOC Jean Baptist Joseph Franz Henry Curti (1854–1898) was a Swiss-German opera composer. Curti was born 16 November 1854 at Kassel, son to the lawyer and court opera singer Anton Curti (1820–1887), and his wife Marie Clementine, née Gräbner (1827–1898). From 1864, while his father took up engagements in Europe’s opera houses, Curti grew up with his uncle in Rapperswil, Switzerland, on the shores of Lake Zurich. In addition to school lessons, he learned to play the piano, organ and violin. After graduating from high school in 1871 he travelled to Italy to recover from lung disease; while there he was impressed by the country’s opera. In 1880 he completed medical studies and the state examination at Berlin, subsequently opening a dental practice in Dresden. In addition to his medical practice he took composition lessons with Edmund Kretschmer (1830–1908) and Heinrich Schulz-Beuthen (1838–1915). Curti published his first work Die Gletscherjungfrau in 1882, and his first opera, Hertha, was awarded the Gold Medal for Art and Science by Ernst II, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg in 1887. His international breakthrough came in 1896, two years before his death, with the opera Lili-Tsee, which

Franz Hitz

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Franz Hitz (17 July 1828 – 20 November 1891) was a Swiss pianist and composer who lived and worked in France. He was primarily known for his many piano compositions which were much in vogue as salon music in the latter half of the 19th century. Life and career Hitz was born in Aarau, Switzerland, but later settled in Honfleur, a port town in northwestern France. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire — piano with Pierre Zimmermann and Adolphe Laurent and harmony with Henri Reber — and began publishing compositions in his early 20s. One of his earliest published works was a quadrille, Les Chapeaux de chez nous (The hats from home). The frontispiece had an engraving by the artist Louis Alexandre Dubourg, a friend of Hitz and a fellow resident of Honfleur. Another early work was the patriotic anthem Retour de l’aigle (The return of the eagle) commemorating the return of Prince Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte to France. In addition to his numerous piano works, his other compositions included a mass with organ accompaniment and several stage works. In 1870 L’Orphéon published his elementary textbook for piano students, Questionnaire musical: Notions élémentaires. Franz Hitz died at Honfleur at

Franz Treichler

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Francisco José Conceição Leitão Treichler Music career The Young Gods Relocating to Geneva following the demise of Jof & the Ram, Treichler formed The Young Gods with Cesare Pizzi and Frank Bagnoud in 1985. The band originated from Treichler’s sound collage experiments with a 4-track recorder and eschewed guitars in favour of a sampler, composing music from distorted guitar and classical music loops. Working with Swans member and producer Roli Mosimann, the band released 1987’s The Young Gods and 1989 L’eau rouge to critical acclaim from publications such as Melody Maker. In 1993, the band released The Young Gods Play Kurt Weill, which featured covers of Kurt Weill compositions. Treichler relocated to the New York for the recording of the band’s English-language record T.V. Sky (1992) and Interscope-debut, Only Heaven (1995). He relocated to Switzerland following the departure of the band’s second drummer, Urs Hiestand. The band has released electronic-influenced record Second Nature and Super Ready/Fragmenté in 2000 and 2007, respectively. Treichler resumed playing guitar on 2008’s Knock on Wood, as well as on the band’s 2010 and 2019 studio albums, Everybody Knows and Data Mirage

Fritz Brun

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Fritz Brun (18 August 1878 – 29 November 1959) was a Swiss pianist, conductor and composer of classical music. Life Brun was born in Lucerne. He was a student of Franz Wüllner at the conservatory at Cologne, and studied piano and theory there until 1902. The following year he became a piano teacher at the music school in Bern. From 2003 to 2015, these symphonies were collectively performed by the Moscow Symphony Orchestra and Bratislava Symphony Orchestra, conducted by the Swiss conductor Adriano and released in May 2019 by Brilliant Classics. The set consists of individual recordings by the Guild Music Label. Beside the symphonies, Brun also composed 4 string quartets, a piano concerto, a cello concerto, many more including vocal works. Brun’s work has been considered and compared to the style of Brahms. This might be because Brun specialized in and admired the work of Brahms, especially as a conductor. Symphonies *No. 1 in B minor (1901) (premiered 1 June 1908 conducted by the composer) *No. 2 in B (1911) (premiered 14 February 1911 conducted by Volkmar Andreae) *No. 6 in C (1932–1933) (premiered 29 October 1933 conducted by Hermann Scherchen) (premiered 12 December 1960, conduct

Geneviève Calame

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Geneviève Calame (30 December 1946 – 8 October 1993) was a Swiss pianist, music educator and composer. Life Geneviève Calame was born in Geneva of Greco-Italian ancestry, and studied the piano in Geneva with Lottie Morel and then in Rome with Guido Agosti. She continued her education in Geneva with Louis Hiltbrand and Jacques Guyonnet. She took further courses in composition in London with Pierre Boulez, in Liège with Henri Pousseur and in Paris with Jean-Claude Eloy. She appeared as a piano soloist many times in the Studio de Musique Contenporaine from 1972 to 1983. She studied electronic and electro-acoustic technology in New York City with Hubert Howe and visual artist Bill Etra. After completing her education, Geneviève Calame worked as a composer through contemporary music studios in Geneva. In 1971 she and Jacques Guyonnet founded a studio for electronic music, video and information technology under the name A.R.T (Artistic Research Team), and she began to produce audio visual installations, among other works. In 1972 Calame married Jacques Guyonnet and had two children. Geneviève Calame developed a method for teaching electronic music to children and taught from 1975–1993 at

Gian Piero Reverberi

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Gian Piero Reverberi (; born 29 July 1939) is an Italian pianist, composer, arranger, conductor, and entrepreneur. Biography After obtaining Diplomas in piano and composition from the Paganini Conservatory in Genoa, Reverberi worked in a wide range of media, including TV themes, spaghetti Western soundtracks to pop and rock records, where, with Robert Mellin, he composed the memorable music to the children’s TV series The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe in 1964. He created the Rondò Veneziano ensemble. He also worked with his brother Gian Franco on the song “Last Men Standing” (or “Nel cimitero di Tucson”) from the soundtrack of Django, Prepare a Coffin (Preparati la bara!), which was sampled in Gnarls Barkley’s hit “Crazy”. As a producer, Reverberi worked for New Trolls and Le Orme progressive rock bands, being also listed as one of the official members of the latter for a short stint. In the 1960s-1970s he was also the producer of several albums of singer-songwriters such as Lucio Battisti, Fabrizio De André, Luigi Tenco and Gino Paoli. In 1979, he founded the Rondò Veneziano chamber orchestra, which he has led ever since, having been the main composer, arranger, and conductor of t

Giovanni Henrico Albicastro

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Johann Heinrich von Weissenburg (c. 1660 – 26 January 1730), known as Giovanni Henrico Albicastro, was an amateur musician and composer of the Baroque era. Biography Albicastro came from Klosterneuburg near Vienna, or the village of Bieswangen, near Pappenheim in central Bavaria, not far from the village of Weissenburg (“White Castle”, thus “Albicastro” in Latin or Italian). Johann Gottfried Walther included Albicastro in his Musicalisches Lexicon (1732) under the mistaken supposition that Albicastro came from Switzerland; consequently he has often been included in lists of Swiss musicians. In 1686, Albicastro moved to Leiden, in the Netherlands, where he registered at the University of Leiden as a Musicus Academiae, but his name does not appear in the university’s archives. In 1696, a collection of twelve of his trio sonatas appeared, entitled Il giardino armonico sacro-profano (“The sacred-profane harmonic garden”), Op. 3. Edited by François Barbry, it was published in Bruges by François van Heurck; no copies of the last six, or of Albicastro’s opus 1 or opus 2 from Bruges seem to have survived. In Amsterdam a separate set of opus numbers were published by Estienne Roger: collect

Gustave Doret

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Gustave Charles Vincent Mathey-Doret (20 September 1866 – 19 April 1943) was a Swiss composer and conductor. Career Doret was born in 1866 in Aigle, Switzerland. He studied at the Berlin Academy of Music with Joseph Joachim, and then at the Conservatoire de Paris with Théodore Dubois and Jules Massenet. His career as a conductor began in 1894 in Paris, where he led the first performance of Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune. He was second conductor of the Concerts d’Harcourt from 1893 to 1895 and director of the Opéra-Comique in the 1890s and 1900s. He was also the founder of the Théâtre du Jorat, in Mézières. His two serious operas, heavily indebted to Massenet, were performed in Paris; his light opera and other stage works were far more popular across French-speaking Europe. In 1914, Doret returned to Switzerland and began studying local popular music and folk music traditions. He also wrote for Swiss newspapers and wrote a memoir, Temps et contretemps, published in 1942. Most of his output was vocal, and included operas, music theatre pieces, one oratorio, choral music, and more than 300 songs. His only instrumental works were two orchestral pieces, a string quartet, an

Hans Eugen Frischknecht

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Hans Eugen Frischknecht (born 8 May 1939) is a Swiss composer, organist, choral conductor and harpsichordist. Life Born in St. Gallen, Frischknecht graduated from the Swiss Music Pedagogic Association after his school-leaving exams as a piano teacher (SMPV). From 1959 to 1962, he studied composition with Boris Blacher, counterpoint with Ernst Pepping, organ (final examination) with Michael Schneider and twelve-tone music with Josef Rufer at the Universität der Künste Berlin. in der MusicSack-Datenbank From 1962 to 1964 he continued his training with Olivier Messiaen (courses in analysis), in organ with Gaston Litaize and in harpsichord with Robert Veyron-Lacroix at the Conservatoire de Paris. As organist and harpsichordist, he gave concerts in Europe and the USA. From 1964 to 2002, he was organist and choirmaster at the Protestant-Reformed Johanneskirche in the Breitenrain quarter of Bern. Frischknecht was President of the Bern City Association of the International Society for New Music (IGNM) from 1977 to 1988. In addition to organ, piano and harpsichord pieces, he composed mainly chamber music and choral works. They have been performed in Europe and the United States by the and t

Hans Huber (composer)

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Hans Huber (28 June 185225 December 1921) was a Swiss composer. Between 1894 and 1918, he composed five operas. He also wrote a set of 24 Preludes and Fugues, Op. 100, for piano four-hands in all major and minor keys. Biography He was born in Eppenberg-Wöschnau (Canton of Solothurn). The son of an amateur musician, Huber became a chorister and showed an early talent for the piano. In 1870, he entered Leipzig Conservatory, where his teachers included Oscar Paul. In 1877, he returned to Basel to teach, but did not obtain a post in the Conservatory there until 1889; seven years later, he became director. Among his notable students were Hans Münch and Hermann Suter. In 1889, Huber wrote an A major symphony, which was conducted in December 1889 by Friedrich Hegar, and whose full score survives. He wrote in all nine symphonies, eight acknowledged, and several concertos, two for violin and four for piano. During his last years, he lived in Minusio in Villa Ginia. He died at Locarno. Works Huber’s first symphony, in D minor, subtitled “Tellsinfonie” has a slight programmatic element, derived from the story of the Swiss national hero William Tell. The symphony is somewhat similar in style a

Hanspeter Kyburz

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Hanspeter Kyburz (born 8 July 1960) is a contemporary Swiss composer of classical music, known for applying electronic music techniques to his productions. Career Kyburz was born in Lagos, Nigeria to Swiss parents. In 1980, he began studying music composition, first in Graz with A. Dobrowolsky and Gösta Neuwirth, then, from 1982–1990, with Gösta Neuwirth and Frank Michael Beyer at the Universität der Künste in Berlin, later with Hans Zender in Frankfurt. In 1990, he received the Boris Blacher Prize and won a Cité internationale des arts scholarship for 1990/91 in Paris. In 1991, Kyburz began collaborating with the Insel-Musik-Konzerte group in Berlin. His study of music theory as well as the philosophy and history of art assured him acquisition of the Magistertitels title. He was awarded the Schneider-Schott Music Prize in 1996, and the Förderpreis Prize from the Berlin Akademie der Künste in 1994. He has held lectures on electronic music production in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, and in 1996 he participated as a guest lecturer on the subject of the Basler composer week. As a composer, he is by performances with the citizens of Berlin Biennale, Wiener Festwochen (Vienna’s week

Heidi Baader-Nobs

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Heidi Baader-Nobs (born 5 December 1940) is a Swiss composer. She was born in Delémont, and studied violin and piano at school before training as a teacher at the Ecole Normale in Delémont. She later studied composition and music theory with Robert Suter and Jacques Wildberger at the Basle Musik-Akademie. In 2018 Baader-Nobs was commissioned to compose a piece for the Festival frauenkomponiert (Women Composed) 2018. Life Heidi Baader-Nobs was born Heidi Nobs on 5 December 1940 in Delémont, Switzerland. She studied composition and music theory with Robert Suter and Jacques Wildberger, also at the Basel Music Academy. Baader-Nobs settled in Allschwil, and is married to Claudius Baader and has three children. Works Selected works by Baader-Nobs include: *Duo (1986) *Bifurcation for tuba and piano References

Heinrich Sutermeister

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Heinrich Sutermeister (12 August 1910 – 16 March 1995) was a Swiss composer, most famous for his opera Romeo und Julia. Life and career Sutermeister was born in Feuerthalen. Orff thereafter remained a powerful influence on his music. Returning to Switzerland in the mid-1930s, Sutermeister devoted his life to composition. He wrote some works for the radio, starting with Die schwarze Spinne in 1936, before turning later to television opera. His most successful stage work was Romeo und Julia, premiered in Dresden in 1940 under Karl Böhm. He was the brother of Hans Martin Sutermeister. Their grandfather was the folklorist Otto Sutermeister. He died in Vaux-sur-Morges. * Omnia ad Unum, cantata, 1965–66 * Cello Concerto No. 2, 1971 * Te Deum, 1975 * Clarinet Concerto, 1975–76 * Consolatio philosophiae, ‘Scène dramatique’, 1979 References ;Notes ;Sources *Warrack, John and West, Ewan (1992), The Oxford Dictionary of Opera, 782 pages, *Operone page on Sutermeister, accessed 1 April 2011

Heinz Holliger

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Heinz Robert Holliger (born 21 May 1939) is a Swiss composer, oboist, conductor and pianist. Known for his versatility and virtuosic technique, Grove Music Online credits him with raising the prominence of the oboe and enlarging its repertoire. A prominent figure in contemporary classical music, many leading composers have written for him, including Messiaen, Berio, Carter, Henze, Krenek, Lutosławski, Martin, Penderecki, Stockhausen and Yun. A composer himself, Holliger has contributed his own oboe compositions, alongside works such as the opera Schneewittchen (1998). Biography Holliger was born in Langenthal, Switzerland. Music Holliger studied composition with Sándor Veress and Pierre Boulez, and has composed many works in a variety of genres. Many of his works have been recorded for the ECM label. Walter Fink invited him to be the 17th composer featured in the 2007 Komponistenporträt of the Rheingau Musik Festival. There, Holliger conducted music by Claude Debussy and Robert Schumann, alongside performances of his own vocal works, setting Georg Trakl poems, and Gesänge der Frühe, combining Hölderlin texts with quotations from Schumann’s music. For New Music patron Paul Sacher’s

Henri Christiné

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Henri Marius Christiné (27 December 1867 – 25 November 1941) was a French composer of Swiss birth. The son of a French Savoyard watchmaker, Christiné was born in Geneva, Switzerland. He began by teaching at the lycée in Geneva, while pursuing his interest in music and playing organ in a local church. He married a cafe singer whose troupe was passing through Geneva, and went with her to Nice where they were married. He made his home in France, writing songs firstly for his wife and then for popular singers such as Mayol, Dranem, and Fragson. He also conducted for the music hall at the Place Clichy. Although Christiné wrote some operettas for the Scala theatre in Paris before the First World War, his career took off when he had his operetta Phi-Phi staged the day of the Armistice on 11 November 1918, with words by Albert Willemetz and Fabien Solar and which ran for three years at the Bouffes-Parisiens. This success was followed by Dédé in 1921, Madame (1923) and J’adore ça (1925). These works were in the forefront of a new fashion in music-theatre: sparkling, witty, jazzy musical plays. Christiné’s tunes often build on repeated refrains of six or seven notes (a ‘hook’) which made the

Hermann Haller (composer)

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Hermann Haller (9 June 1914 – 13 August 2002) was a Swiss composer. Life Hermann Haller was born in Burgdorf, Switzerland. His uncle was the sculptor Hermann Haller. After his matura in 1933 he studied at the conservatory of Zurich: Volkmar Andreae, Paul Müller-Zürich and Rudolf Wittelsbach were his teachers. In 1938–39 he studied composition in Paris with Nadia Boulanger. After World War II Haller started to teach piano at the “Lehrerseminar” Küsnacht until 1979. He wrote many works, including three string quartets, two piano concertos, one symphony for large orchestra and a song cycle for baritone and orchestra, Ed è subito sera (1978), on poems of Salvatore Quasimodo. Works (selection) Chamber music * Sonate for flute and piano (1945) * String quartet (1961) * 6 Inventionen for flute and harpsichord (1966) * «In memoriam» 5 pieces for piano trio (1968) * Sonata for piano (1969) * String quartet #2 (1971) * 3 Nocturnes for viola and piano (1972) * Oktett for oboe, clarinet, bassoon, string quartet and piano (1976) * 5 pièces en forme de variations for wind quintet (1980) * «Blaue Wand», Impressionen nach einem Bild von Hans Fischli for flute, string sextet and piano (1986) * Stri

Hermann Suter

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Hermann Suter (28 April 1870 – 22 June 1926) was a Swiss composer and conductor. Biography Born in Kaiserstuhl, Aargau, Suter studied in the conservatories at Basel, Stuttgart and Leipzig, under Hans Huber and Carl Reinecke. He was an organist and conductor in Zurich from 1892 to 1902, after which he moved to Basel, where he lived to his death. He was director of the Basel Conservatory from 1918 to 1921. One of his pupils at Basel was Richard Tauber who sang three of his songs at the Olten Music Festival in June 1912. Compositions Suter’s compositions contain echoes of Brahms, Strauss, Mahler, and many other composers whom Suter conducted at Basel. Much of his output is for chorus, both accompanied and unaccompanied; the best-known of his works is the oratorio Le Laudi (The Praises) or Le Laudi di San Francesco d’Assisi, based on the Canticle of the Sun, written in the summer of 1923 in Plaun da Lej, in Engadine, and premiered on 13 June 1924 in Basel. By 1930 the oratorio had been performed over eighty times in nearly as many cities. Wilhelm Furtwängler led the Vienna premiere, and the work was acclaimed in Paris, Stockholm, Berlin, Hamburg, Leipzig, Cologne, and a host of smaller

Igor Stravinsky

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Early life in Russia, 1882–1901#

Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky was born in Oranienbaum, Russia—a town renamed Lomonosov in 1948, about 50 km mi west of Saint Petersburg—on 17 June 1882. Oranienbaum was then part of Petergofsky Uyezd in the Saint Petersburg Governorate of the Russian Empire and is now part of Petrodvortsovy District in Saint Petersburg. His mother, Anna Kirillovna Stravinskaya (), was an amateur singer and pianist from an established family of landowners. His father, Fyodor Ignatyevich Stravinsky, was a bass at the Mariinsky Theater in Saint Petersburg, descended from a line of Polish landowners. The name “Stravinsky” is of Polish origin, deriving from the Strava river in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The family was originally called “Soulima-Stravinsky”, bearing the Soulima arms, but “Soulima” was dropped after the partitions of Poland. The Stravinsky family vacationed in Oranienbaum during summers, and their primary residence was an apartment along the Kryukov Canal in central Saint Petersburg, near the Mariinsky Theater. Stravinsky was baptized hours after birth and joined to the Russian Orthodox Church in St. Nicholas Cathedral. Constantly in fear of the short-tempered Fyodor and indifferent towards Anna, Stravinsky lived there for the first 27 years of his life with three siblings: Roman and Yury, his older siblings who irritated him immensely, and Gury, his close younger brother with whom he said he found “the love and understanding denied us by our parents”. Stravinsky was educated by the family’s governess until the age of 11, when he began attending the Second Saint Petersburg Gymnasium in present-day Admiralteysky District, a school that he recalled hating because he had few friends. From the age of nine, Stravinsky studied privately with a piano teacher. He later wrote that Fyodor and Anna saw no musical talent in him due to his lack of technical skills; Stravinsky frequently improvised instead of practicing assigned pieces. His excellent sight-reading skill prompted him to frequently read vocal scores from Fyodor’s vast personal library. At around the age of 10, Stravinsky began regularly attending performances at the Mariinsky Theater, where he was introduced to Russian repertoire as well as Italian and French opera; by the age of 16, he attended rehearsals at the theater five or six days a week. By the age of 14, Stravinsky had mastered the solo part of Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto No. 1, and at the age of 15, he transcribed for solo piano a string quartet by Alexander Glazunov.

Iris Szeghy

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Iris Szeghy (born 1956) is a Slovak composer living in Switzerland. Biography Iris Szeghy was born in Prešov, Slovakia. She studied piano and composition at the Conservatory in Košice and composition at the Music Academy in Bratislava, she ended it with a doctoral degree at the same school. Szeghy went through numerous composer residencies - at the Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart, at the University of California at San Diego, at the STEIM Studio in Amsterdam, at the State Opera in Hamburg, at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, she was a scholar of the Landis & Gyr Foundation in London and Budapest etc. Iris Szeghy has won many international composition awards, her work has been performed and broadcast in Europe, America and Australia. Works Szeghy composes for orchestra, chamber ensembles and voice. Selected works include: *Hommage à Rodin - Touches with three Statues of the Master 1982 *Musica Dolorosa (String Quartet) 1985 *Minifanfare 1986 *Canto Triste Nocturne for Trombone (Violoncello) and Piano 1986 *Afforismi 1990 *Afforismi II 1992 *Midsummer Night’s Mystery 1992 *Midsummer Night’s Mystery II 1993 *Musica Folclorica - Hommage à Bartók 1996 *A Day in Manhatta

Jakob Zeugheer

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Jakob Zeugheer (known also as J. Z. Herrmann; 20 July 1803 in Zürich – 15 June 1865 in Liverpool) was a Swiss violinist, conductor and composer. Childhood Born at Zürich in 1803, Zeugheer learned the violin first from Heinrich Joseph Wassermann in his native town, and in 1818 was placed at Munich under Ferdinand Fränzl, for the violin, and Joseph Graetz for composition and musical science. A visit to Vienna in 1823 confirmed his enthusiasm for chamber-music and Beethoven, who remained through life the object of his highest veneration. Career as a quartet player The example of Schuppanzigh, and of the four brothers Moralt, suggested to Zeugheer the idea of attempting the same with his friends in Munich, as “das Quartett Gebrüder Herrmann”. Zeugheer was leader; Joseph Wex of Immenstadt, second violin; Carl Baader, viola; and Joseph Lidel (grandson of Andreas Lidel, the eminent performer on the baryton), violoncello. They started Aug. 34, 1824, for the south, and gave performances at the towns of south Germany and Switzerland, and along the Rhine to the Netherlands and Belgium. In the spring of 1826 they played in Paris, before Cherubini and Pierre Baillot, and gave a public performan

Jean Perrin (composer)

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Jean Perrin (September 17, 1920 – September 24, 1989) was a Swiss composer and pianist. He composed in a neo-classical style, sometimes approaching polytonality, and his music shows the influence of Stravinsky and Poulenc. He began studying piano in Lausanne, where he was born, and later studied with Franz-Joseph Hirt in Bern and Edwin Fischer in Lucerne. Eventually he went to Paris to study piano with Yves Nat. In Paris he also studied composition with Nadia Boulanger and Darius Milhaud. After returning to Lausanne he taught piano and also edited program notes for the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra for over 20 years. He died in his sleep in Lausanne the night before the worldwide broadcast on French-speaking radio of the world premiere of his string quartet. List of selected works Perrin wrote over 50 compositions, some of which are listed here: *Concerto grosso for piano and orchestra, op. 6b (1952) *Sonatas(1953-6): ** for horn and piano, op. 7 ** for violin and piano, op. 8 ** for piano, op. 10b ** for cello and piano, op. 11 ** for flute and piano, op. 12b *Symphony No. 2, op. 15 (1959) *Mass for four soloists, chorus, and orchestra, op. 19 (unfinished) *Piano Quartet, op. 23 (196

Jean-Luc Darbellay

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Jean-Luc Darbellay (born 2 July 1946) is a Swiss composer, conductor, clarinetist and physician. He was chairman of the Swiss Society for New Music and board member of the International Society for Contemporary Music. Darbellay is a member of the composers group: Groupe Lacroix. He has published about 150 works. He was awarded with the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. Life and work Darbellay was born in Bern. Like his father and brother, he first studied medicine at the University of Bern. In 1975 he studied the clarinet with Kurt Weber at the Bern Conservatory and musical composition with Theo Hirsbrunner, Cristobal Halffter and Dimitri Terzakis. He attended seminars with Pierre Boulez (IRCM and Collège de France) and Franco Ferrara and masterclasses with Heinz Holliger and Klaus Huber. He was assistant of Edison Denisov at the Lucerne Festival. At a festival in Perugia he met John Cage, who visited Europe the last time before his death in 1992. He studied conducting with Pierre Dervaux, Paul Theissen and Jean-Marie Auberson as well. The cellist Anssi Karttunen first premiered his Concerto for violin and cello at the Maison de Radio France in 1989. He composed Ecume for strin

Joachim Raff

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Joseph Joachim Raff (27 May 182224 or 25 June 1882) was a Swiss composer, pedagogue and pianist. Biography Raff was born in Lachen in Switzerland. His father, a teacher, had fled there from Württemberg in 1810 to escape forced recruitment into the military of that southwestern German state that had to fight for Napoleon in Russia. Joachim was largely self-taught in music, studying the subject while working as a schoolmaster in Schmerikon, Schwyz and Rapperswil. In 1845, Raff walked to Basel to hear Franz Liszt play the piano. After a period in Stuttgart where he became friends with the conductor Hans von Bülow, he worked as Liszt’s assistant at Weimar from 1850 to 1853. During this time he helped Liszt in the orchestration of several of his works, claiming to have had a major part in orchestrating the symphonic poem Tasso. In 1851, Raff’s opera König Alfred was staged in Weimar, and five years later he moved to Wiesbaden where he largely devoted himself to composition. The Lenore symphony (No. 5), famous in its time, was inspired by a ballad of the same name by Gottfried August Bürger that also inspired works by several other composers, including Maria Theresia von Paradis (1789),

Jörg Ewald Dähler

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Jörg Ewald Dähler (16 March 1933 – 3 November 2018), was a Swiss conductor, harpsichordist, fortepiano player and composer. Life Born in Bern, Dähler, son of the reformed pastor Karl Walter Dähler (1903–1986), grew up in Langnau im Emmental. He then attended the teacher training college in Hofwil. At the Hochschule für Musik in Bern, he graduated as a teacher of piano and then studied harpsichord at the Musikhochschule in Freiburg im Breisgau. He taught basso continuo, chamber music, and choral conducting at the Berne Conservatory of Music and at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. His pupils included Olive Emil Wetter and Hans Eugen Frischknecht. From 1965 to 1998, he conducted concerts in Bern, at the Bätterkinden Gasthof Krone and the Hindelbank castle, and from 1974 onwards, the Bern Chamber Choir. He also practised drawing. He illustrated two collections of short stories by his father, written in the Bern dialect of German: “Momou das git’s” (Langnau im Emmental, 1983 ) and Ou das het’s ggä (idem, 1986). Works * Das Passionsgeschehen nach dem Evangelisten Lukas (The Passion event according to Luke the Evangelist). For 8-voice mixed choir, narrator, trombone quartet, and organ. 19

Julien-François Zbinden

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Julien-François Zbinden (11 November 1917 – 8 March 2021) was a Swiss composer and jazz pianist. Life Born in Rolle, Kanton Waadt, Zbinden studied piano in Lausanne and Geneva. He learned musical composition mainly autodidactically, but also took lessons with René Gerber. In 1938 he became pianist of a jazz band. From 1947 he worked at Radio Suisse Romande in Lausanne, first as a recording manager and from 1956 as head of the music department. From 1973 to 1979 and from 1987 to 1991 Zbinden was president of the Swiss Society for the Rights of Authors of Musical Works (SUISA). Zbinden is the winner of numerous prizes: the Henryk Wieniawski Composition Prize in Warsaw (1956), the Grand Prize of the Communauté radiophonique des programmes de langue française, the Swiss Radio Broadcasting Prize, the prize of the Société des auteurs et compositeurs dramatiques (SACD) and the prize of the Association des amis du Festival international de Lausanne. In 1978, he was appointed to the rank of Officer in the Officier des Arts et des Lettres. and in 1993 he received the Gold Medal of the City of Lausanne. He was an honorary member of the association Les Amis de Maurice Ravel. He lived in Lausan

Jürg Hanselmann

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Jürg Hanselmann (born 23 September 1960) is a Swiss-Liechtensteiner pianist, composer and music educator. He teaches piano and composition at the Sargans Cantonal School. Life Born in Grabs, Hanselmann grew up in Schaan (Principality of Liechtenstein) and received his first piano lessons from Regina Enzenhofer at the Liechtenstein Music School in Vaduz. His first compositions date back to his early youth. At the age of 17, he was a student of Albert Schneeberger and Kristina Steinegger at the Bern Conservatory, today’s University of Music and Performing Arts. There, he obtained the soloist diploma “with distinction”. His further education led him to London to the Hungarian pianist Louis Kentner and to Frankfurt to the Russian pianist Irina Lein-Edelstein. From 1983, he completed a three-year course in composition and analysis in Berne with Sándor Veress, who was a student of Zoltán Kodály and had studied piano with Béla Bartók. He also attended master classes with Mieczysław Horszowski and the Beaux Arts Trio. His pianistic concert activities have taken Hanselmann to Switzerland, Austria, Germany, France, Luxembourg, Holland, Italy and several times to the USA. In his concert activ

Jürg Wyttenbach

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Jürg Wyttenbach (2 December 1935 – 22 December 2021) was a Swiss composer, pianist, and orchestra conductor. Life and career Wyttenbach studied at the University of the Arts Bern under Sándor Veress and subsequently at the Conservatoire de Paris alongside Yvonne Lefébure and Joseph Calvet. As a pianist, he performed with the Dresden Philharmonic, the Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, and the Kraków Philharmonic Orchestra. He also conducted the Ensemble Modern, the Klangforum Wien, the ensemble recherche, the International Society for Contemporary Music, and the Ensemble l’Itinéraire. He taught piano at the City of Basel Music Academy from 1967 to 2003. He died in Basel on 22 December 2021, at the age of 86. Works *Exécution ajournée *Lamentoroso *Tarantella *Encore *Harlekinade *Les Divisions *De Metalli les Prophéties de Leonardo da Vinci References External links * * *Sound recordings of works of the composer from the archives of Swiss Radio SRG SSR on Neo.Mx3

Klaus Huber

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Klaus Huber (30 November 1924 – 2 October 2017) was a Swiss composer and academic based in Basel and Freiburg. Among his students were Brian Ferneyhough, Michael Jarrell, Younghi Pagh-Paan, Toshio Hosokawa, Wolfgang Rihm, and Kaija Saariaho. He received the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize in 2009, among other awards. Life Born in Bern, Huber first studied violin and music pedagogy from 1947 to 1949 at the Zurich Conservatory He became one of the leading figures of his generation in Europe, alongside Pierre Boulez and Karlheinz Stockhausen. Stage works * Jot oder Wann kommt der Herr zurück / Dialektische Oper in zwei Teilen (1973) Opera in two parts. Text: Philip Oxman, in German by Kurt Marti and Dietrich Ritschl * 2009: ** Salzburg Music Prize ** Honorary Doctorate from University of Music and Theatre Leipzig * 2013: German Music Authors’ Prize in the category Lifetime achievement References Further reading * * External links * Official site including list of works, biographical information etc. * * Klaus Huber Musikbibliographie * Publisher’s website: Klaus Huber at Ricordi Berlin * Ricordi: Klaus Huber has passed away * Volker Hagedorn: Siemens-Musikpreisträger: Die Seele geht auf

Lars Taylor

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Lars Rainer Rüetschi (born March 24, 1977), professional known as Lars Taylor, is a Swiss fusion guitarist, composer, and producer. He has collaborated with many notable musicians and Grammy Award winners, including Donny McCaslin, Mark Soskin, Paul Brown, and Bob Glaub. Early life Lars Taylor was born in Switzerland, but spent a portion of his childhood in Brazil, where music such as Bossa Nova influenced him. He played the piano for seven years before discovering the guitar at the age of 14. At the age of 15, Lars bought a 4-track recorder, recording, arranging and producing his own compositions, having already his first professional studio job as a session player for a single recording when he was 17. Career From 1998 to 2002, Lars Taylor studied jazz guitar in the Basel Music Academy’s After being discovered in 2008 by the Angolan rapper Diamondog, he became part of his band playing in legendary places and festivals like Kunsthaus Tacheles, Fête de la Musique and old DDR place Kaffee Burger. In 2009 Taylor was also a session guitar player for the New German Wave band 1. Futurologischer Congress, contributed tracks for the album Küssmichdoch from German pop singer Christin Henke

Lili Wieruszowski

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Lili Wieruszowski (10 December 1899 in Cologne – 2 March 1971) and her sister Helene became a well-known historian. Lili’s parents converted from Judaism to Protestantism and raised their daughters as Protestants. Wieruszowski studied music at the Cologne Conservatory, then at the Berlin University of Music. In 1925 she was employed as an organist at the Charlottenburg Epiphany Congregation. This job ended in 1933 when she was banned from playing the organ in Germany because of her Jewish background. She moved to Basel where she became well known as an organist and composer during the 1940s and 1950s. Her music was published by Schott, Foetisch, Krumpholtz, and Zwingli Verlag. Wieruszowski’s compositions include: Organ *22 Chorale Preludes and Intonations *Chorale Preludes 1946 (with Rudolph Moser) *43 Chorale Preludes 1956 *26 Chorale Preludes 1965 Vocal *Geneva Psalter *Huguenot psalms *Psalm 25 *Psalm 33 *Psalm 47 *Psalm 107 *psalm settings in the Swiss Evangelical Reformed Church Hymnal (some with instrumental accompaniment) References

Lily Reiff

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Lily Sertorius Bamberger Reiff (21 June 1866 - 8 May 1958) was a German composer and pianist who spent much of her life in Switzerland. A patron of the arts as well as a musician, she helped found Switzerland’s first chamber orchestra. Her music was composed under the name Lily Bamberger Sertorius through opus 11 and later under the name Lily Reiff. Biography Reiff was born in Bamberg, Germany. She studied at the Music Academy in Munich for two years before moving to Weimar in 1883 to study with Franz Liszt for a year. She also studied with Ludwig Thuille in Munich and with Max Conrad and Friedrich Hegar in Zurich. As a student, Reiff presented concerts for charity with the violinist Adolf Busch, who was a friend of her family. Reiff toured as a concert pianist from 1885 to 1888, when she married professor Eugen Bamberger. In 1891, she married the manufacturer and cellist Hermann Reiff. The Reiffs hosted weekly tea recitals at their home, where young musicians performed and networked. They also managed a concert series at the Lilienberg retirement home in Affoltern am Albis, sometimes performing themselves. A 1951 Zürcher Woche magazine profile of Reiff focused on her patronage of

Lothar Kempter

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Lothar Kempter (5 February 1844 – 14 July 1918) was a German-Swiss composer and conductor. Biography Kempter was born in 1844 in Lauingen. His father was music teacher Friedrich Kempter. Following his father’s wishes he started studying law at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. In 1868, after his father had died, he changed to studying music. The same year he married singer Caroline Leonoff. He then conducted for three years the orchestra at the Strasbourg theatre. In 1875, he became Kapellmeister at the Aktientheather in Zürich, a position which he held until 1915. In 1879, he became director of the Tonhalle Orchester Zürich. In 1886, he began teaching music theory and composition at the Zurich Conservatory (merged in 1999 into the School of Music, Drama, and Dance (HMT), itself merged in 2007 into the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK)). In 1892, he became a citizen of Zürich. In 1911, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Zurich. In 1899, eleven years after his first wife Caroline had died, he married Hedwig Ratzinger, who died in 1908. In 1910, he married Philomena Jakob (alias Philo Jarno). Both were singers at the Stadttheater Zurich. He died

Louis Niedermeyer

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Abraham Louis Niedermeyer (27 April 180214 March 1861) was a Swiss and naturalized French composer. He chiefly wrote church music and a few operas. He also taught music and took over the École Choron, renamed École Niedermeyer de Paris, a school for the study and practice of church music, with students that include several eminent French musicians such as Gabriel Fauré and André Messager. Life and career Niedermeyer was born in Nyon in 1802. His father was a music teacher from Würzburg, Germany, who had settled in Switzerland after his marriage. There, he studied piano with Ignaz Moscheles and composition with Emanuel Aloys Förster. He then studied in Rome with Vincenzo Fioravanti, the choirmaster of the papal Chapel (1819) and in Naples with Niccolò Antonio Zingarelli. While in Rome, he met Gioachino Rossini, who befriended him and encouraged him to write operas. His first opera, Il reo per amore (Guilty for Love), premiered at the Teatro del Fondo in Naples in 1820 and encountered some success. After his studies, he came back to Switzerland and composed Le Lac. He later composed Marie Stuart (on a libretto written by Theodore Anne ) which premiered at the Théâtre de l’Académie Ro

Marc Dubugnon

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Marc Dubugnon (born 24 May 1946) is a musician, organist and teacher of the Canton de Vaud. Sources * Dubugnon, Marc, Sept toccatas et deux chorals, Aethon, 1988, cote BCUL: DCR 9564 * Dubugnon, Marc, Vierne, Louis, Symphonies pour orgue 3 et 4, Aethon, 2003, cote BCUL: DCR 6980 * Delessert, Raphaël, “Après trente-deux ans, l’organiste range ses partitions”, 24 Heures, 2008/02/09, * Dubois, B., “Le titulaire a l’orgue qui le démange”, 24 Heures, 2008/05/23, * Charpilloz, “Un deuxième orgue pour l’église Saint-Martin”, 24 Heures, 2006/12/09, * Grabet, “Derib en vadrouille sur la piste de ses années d’enfance valaisannes”, 24 Heures, 2008/09/13, . External links * Marc Dubugnon on YouTube, * Société des Concerts de St-Martin

Margrit Zimmermann

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Margrit Zimmermann (7 August 1927 – 23 February 2020) was a Swiss pianist, composer, conductor and music educator. She taught music and worked as a conductor in Bern, where she also established an orchestra. She was awarded the Jubiläumsstiftung der Schweizerischen Bankgesellschaft award in 1986, female composer awards from the city of Unna and the city of Kassel, and an award from the Japan International League of Artists in Tokyo in 1989. Life Zimmerman was born in Bern on 7 August 1927. She studied piano there under Jeanne Bovet and composition under Walter Furrer. Zimmermann trained as a conductor under Ewald Körner in Bern and took master courses from Igor Markevitch in Monte Carlo and Hans Swarowski in Ossiach. She taught music for several years and worked as a conductor. She studied composition with Aurelio Maggioni and Umberto Rotondi and at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milan, where she received her diploma in composition in 1978. She also studied opera conducting under Umberto Cattini. In 1973, Margrit Zimmermann established an orchestra in Bern. She received the Jubiläumsstiftung der Schweizerischen Bankgesellschaft award in 1986, female composer awards from the cit

Marguerite Roesgen-Champion

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Marguerite Sara Roesgen-Champion (24 January 1894 – 30 June 1976) was a Swiss composer, pianist and harpsichordist who used the pseudonym Jean Delysse. She composed works for orchestra, harpsichord and piano, as well as chamber and choral works. As a pianist she performed several piano concertos by Mozart and Haydn. On harpsichord she performed compositions for harpsichord by Jean-Henry d’Anglebert and Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach. Roesgen-Champion founded a concert series entitled Suites Française which was used a showcase for students of distinction from the Paris Conservatory. Life Marguerite Sara Roesgen-Champion was born on 24 January 1894 in Geneva. She was a composer, pianist and harpsichordist, and used the pseudonym Jean Delysse. Roesgen-Champion’s mother was singer Cecile Roesgen-Liodet, so Marguerite received her first music lessons at home. She studied at the Conservatoire de Musique de Genève, notably piano with Marie Panthès, and composition with Ernest Bloch and Jaques-Dalcroze. Roesgen-Champion died 30 June 1976 in Paris. Works * Sonata for Flute and Keyboard * Blue and Gold Story, piano with 4 hands * French Suite for flute and harp * Domine not in Furore for mi

Martin Schlumpf

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Martin Schlumpf (born 3 December 1947) is a Swiss musician, composer, conductor, improviser (double bass, saxophone and bass clarinet) and academic teacher. Career Born in Aarau, Schlumpf studied at the conservatory of Zurich, the clarinet with Hansjürg Leuthold, the piano with and Evelyne Dubourg, conducting with Ferdinand Leitner, and theory and composition with Rudolf Kelterborn. He continued his studies with Boris Blacher in Berlin. From 1977 to 2011 he was professor of music theory and improvisation at the Departement Musik of the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste (ZHdK, formerly Musikhochschule). He served the department as Konventspräsident from 1999 to 2010. Selected works * Trio for flute, viola and harp, 1970 * 5 Stücke für grosses Orchester (5 pieces for large orchestra), 1973 * Tenebrae for soprano, alto, baritone, mixed choir, five brass players, harpsichord and string quintet (after Paul Celan), 1976/77 * Jeux for 3 clarinets, 1979 * Ostinato II for three improvising musicians and orchestra, 1982 * “… per la quinta vox…” for viola solo, 1986 * Winterkreis for saxophone quartet, 1991 * December Rains for piano, 1992/93 * Mouvements for piano and orchestra, 1994/99 * Fr

Max E. Keller

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Max Eugen Keller (born 19 March 1947, Aarau) is a Swiss composer, jazz pianist and improvising musician. He was one of the first free-jazz musicians in Switzerland. Since 2007 he is chairman of the Swiss Society for New Music. Life and work Keller studied (fellowship by the Heinrich Strobel Foundation in Freiburg, Germany) musicology, history and composition with Hans Ulrich Lehmann and Helmut Lachenmann at the City of Basel Music Academy and with Nicolaus A. Huber and Thomas Kessler. In 1966 he began his career as one of the first Swiss artists of free jazz. In 1967, he had a sensational performance at the Zurich Jazz Festival. He played in various bands in concerts and on radio broadcasts in Europe. Since 1980 he worked as an improvising musician (piano and electronic musical instruments) again. Concerts have taken him to South America, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland. He worked together with Dani Schaffner, Christoph Gallio, Peter A. Schmid, , Kurt Grämiger, Daniel Mouthon, Thomas Borgmann, Hans Koch, Urs Leimgruber, Günter Müller, Hans Hassler, Charlotte Hug, Matthias Ziegler, Christian Wolfarth, Günter Heinz and Barry Guy. He has composed about 100 works, including el

Max Ettinger

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Max Ettinger (27 December 1874 – 19 July 1951) was an Austrian-German-Swiss composer and conductor. Life Born in Lemberg, Ettinger was the grandson of the Chief Rabbi of Lemberg and the son of the landowner Herz Ettinger. His mother, Ernestine Landau, gave him his first musical education. He was taught by tutors on his parents’ estate and took his school-leaving examination at the old German-Polish grammar school in Lemberg. In Berlin, he tried to get accepted at the Hochschule für Musik, but was not admitted. He received private lessons there in 1899 from Heinrich von Herzogenberg and Heinrich van Eyken in harmony and composition. From 1900 to 1903, he studied at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München with Josef Gabriel Rheinberger, Viktor Gluth and Ludwig Thuille, with the latter privately until 1905. In 1906, he worked as a bandmaster in Saarbrücken and in 1910 in Lübeck, but he gave up this job because of health reasons. From 1911, he lived again in Munich as a composer, where he married Josephine Krisack in 1913. In the 1920s, Ettinger was very successful as a composer, his literary operas were performed in Nuremberg, Hamburg, Munich, Kiel and Leipzig. He also worked aga

Michael Heisch

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Michael Heisch (born 20 May 1963) is a Swiss composer, double bass player, cultural critic and illustrator. Life Heisch was born in 1963 in Schaffhausen as son of the writer and satirist Peter Heisch. From the age of seven he received piano lessons from Henri Chappat. He first completed an apprenticeship as an advertising assistant. From 1980, Heisch took private double bass lessons with Bruno Brandenberger. From 1981 to 1984 he then studied with Yoan Goilav at the Winterthur Conservatory, from 1989 to 1991 with at the St. Gallen Jazz School and from 1991 with Andreas Cincera at the Zurich University of the Arts. From 1990 to 1991 he simultaneously completed a preliminary course at the School for Design in Romanshorn. From 1990 to 1994 Heisch studied theory with Martin Neukom and Christian Bänninger at the School of Music Theory in Zurich as well as composition with Hans Ulrich Lehmann and choral conducting and conducting with Christian Siegmann and Johannes Schöllhorn. From 1994 to 1995 he studied synthetic sound analysis with Gerald Bennett at the Zurich Conservatory. From 1998 to 2002 he then studied composition with Johannes Schöllhorn and Mathias Steinauer at the Zurich-Winter

Michael Jarrell

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Michael Jarrell (born 8 October 1958) is a Swiss composer and academic teacher, whose operas, such as Cassandre, have been performed internationally. Life Born in Geneva, Jarrell studied at the Geneva Conservatoire, and later with Klaus Huber in Freiburg. His works span many genres. In 1982, he won first prizes for composition and went on to win many more, including the Acanthes Prize in 1983, the Beethovenpreis awarded by Bonn in 1986, the Marescotti Prize (1986), both the Gaudeamus International Composers Award and the Henriette Renié prizes in 1988, and the Siemens-Förderpreis (1990). From 1986 to 1988, he was resident at the Cité des Arts in Paris, taking part in the computer music course at IRCAM. His next residency was at the Villa Medici (1988–89), home of the French Academy in Rome, followed by membership of the Istituto Svizzero di Roma in 1989–90, after which he became composer-in-residence at the Orchestre de Lyon (October 1991–June 1993). In 1993, Jarrell was appointed professor of composition at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna. In 1990, he established some of the bases of Computer Music. In 2016, the composition problem he proposed was successfully

Michael Schneider (composer)

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Michael Schneider (born 6 September 1964) is a Swiss composer and musicologist. He is active as a music and culture journalist as well as manager. Life Schneider was born in Göttingen in 1964 and received piano and harpsichord lessons at an early age. He took his school-leaving examination at the , where the composer János Tamás also taught. From 1985 to 1993 he studied musicology, modern history and art history at the University of Zurich and from 1990 to 1994 composition with Dimitri Terzakis at the University of the Arts Bern. In 1988/89 he lived in Sydney, where he made contacts with the Australian music scene. Schneider worked from 1984 to 1993 as music critic for the Aargauer Zeitung and the Badener Tagblatt. From 1993 to 1998 he was project manager at Stapferhaus, managed the PAN Musikverlag in Zurich from 1999 to 2001 and subsequently headed the public relations department of the Museum der Kulturen Basel from 2001 to 2006. From 2000 to 2012 he was also artistic director of the Wettinger Kammerkonzerte in Baden AG. From 2006 to 2019, Schneider served as managing director of the Swiss Cultural Foundation . In addition, he is active on a voluntary basis in several cultural fo

Michel Bühler

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Michel Bühler (30 April 1945 – 7 November 2022) was a Swiss singer-songwriter, playwright, composer, actor, and teacher. Biography Bühler spent his childhood and secondary studies in Sainte-Croix before attending normal school in Lausanne, where he obtained his teaching license in 1965. Bühler then released albums and went on tours in Switzerland, France, and other French-speaking countries. Although primarily dedicated to music, he began a literary career in 1970, publishing two science fiction novels and several collections of stories and songs. He also wrote the screenplay of the telefilm Charmants voisins, with Daniel Prévost in the lead role. Bühler took part in solidarity for oppressed people, singing his support for the Palestinian people in the song En Palestine. The death of a friend inspired him to write his third novel, Cabarete, in 1992. In 2003, he published Lettre à Menétrey. In 2013, Bühler received the Prix Jacques Douai. In 2018, he participated in a mission to El Salvador as an election observer at the municipal and national level. For 20 years, he was a member of the municipal council of Sainte-Croix with the Swiss Socialist Party and the Swiss Party of Labour. P

Michel Roth (composer)

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Michel Roth (born June 26, 1976 in Altdorf, Uri, Switzerland) is a Swiss composer, music researcher, and university professor. Life Michel Roth studied musicology and linguistics for one year at the University of Basel and then composition and music theory with Roland Moser at the City of Basel Music Academy. After graduating with honors, he spent two more years studying with Detlev Müller-Siemens. In 2001, he was appointed to the Lucerne School of Music, where he worked as a professor of composition and music theory and headed the Studio for Contemporary Music. In this role, Michel Roth collaborated with Sofia Gubaidulina, Pierre Boulez, Péter Eötvös, Helmut Lachenmann and George Benjamin and established the Contemporary Art Performance course in cooperation with Lucerne Festival Academy. On his initiative, the Lucerne Academy for Contemporary Music was founded in 2010. In 2011, he accepted an appointment as professor of composition, music theory and artistic research at the Basel Academy of Music, where he is also a member of the research department. In 2022, he received his doctorate in musicology from the University of Basel. As a composer, Roth has collaborated with many renow

Nora Baldenweg

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Nora Baldenweg (born 22 July 1981) is a Swiss Australian musician, vocalist, composer, producer and creative director in fashion. She was the first Swiss female composer to be nominated for the World Soundtrack Awards (Public Choice). She is a member of the World Soundtrack Academy and the European Film Academy. Career Baldenweg has been working as a composer, producer and co-founded the music production company GREAT GARBO in 2004. She has composed music for over 300 advertising commercials for brands like Sony, Mastercard, Dove (one of the most viewed online ads of all time) and 20 fictional films and TV series. Many of her most famous works were produced in the context of the trio Diego Baldenweg with Nora Baldenweg and Lionel Baldenweg, comprising herself and her two brothers Diego Baldenweg and Lionel Baldenweg. Besides her career in music, Baldenweg simultaneously held positions in fashion publishing as editor-at-large/Paris director (Russh), editor-at-large/Paris director/senior editor (Indie), In May 2014 she relaunched the Paris-based magazine Modzik as editor-in-chief. In May 2017 she became editor-in-chief of UK-based magazine Lula. Since 2017 she works as a creative dir

Othmar Schoeck

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Othmar Schoeck (1 September 1886 – 8 March 1957) was a Swiss Romantic composer and conductor. He was known for his considerable output of art songs and song cycles but also wrote operas, notably the one-act Penthesilea, premiered in Dresden in 1927, and instrumental works, including two string quartets and concertos for violin (for Stefi Geyer), cello and horn. Biography Early life and career Schoeck was born in Brunnen, studied briefly at the Leipzig Conservatory with Max Reger in 1907/08, but otherwise spent his whole career in Zürich. His father, Alfred Schoeck was a landscape painter, and as a young man, Othmar seriously considered following in his father’s footsteps and attended classes at an art school in Zürich before dropping out to go to the Zürich Conservatory. During World War I Schoeck earned his living in Zurich initially as a chorus director and as a freelance accompanist and conductor. An annuity given him by the Winterthur industrialist Werner Reinhart from 1916 onwards, coupled with the income from his appointment as conductor of the St. Gall Symphony orchestra in 1917 (with special permission to remain resident in Zürich), allowed Schoeck to give up choral conduct

Paul Juon

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Paul Juon (, Pavel Fyodorovich Yuon; 6 March 1872 – 21 August 1940) was a Russian composer of Swiss origin. Life Juon was born in Moscow on 6 March 1872, the son of Theodor Friedrich Juon (1842–1912), an insurance official, and Emilie Gottwalt. His father was born in Goldingen, Courland Governorate, Russian Empire (now Kuldīga, Latvia), into a Swiss family originally from Masein, Grisons, while his mother was of Irish descent. Juon entered the Moscow Conservatory in 1889, where he studied violin with Jan Hřímalý and Sergei Taneyev. The CD set “The Dawn of Recording: The Julius Block Cylinders,” issued by Marston Records, includes recordings, dating from 1911, 1914 and 1915, of five brief excerpts from Juon’s music: one selection for piano solo played by Juon, two selections for piano duet played by Juon and Leonid Kreutzer, one selection for piano solo played by Leonid Kreutzer, and one selection for violin and piano played by Eddy Brown and Julius Block. Personal life Juon married his first wife, Katharina Schalchalova, in 1896; they had three children: Ina, Aja, and Ralf. Katharina died in 1911. In 1912, he married Marie Hegner-Günthert (called Armande), with whom he also had thr

Pierre Mariétan

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Pierre Mariétan (23 September 1935 – 23 March 2025) was a Swiss composer. Biography Born in Monthey, Mariétan studied first at the Geneva Conservatory in 1955–60 with Marescotti and later with, amongst others, Pierre Boulez, Bernd Alois Zimmermann, Gottfried Michael Koenig, Henri Pousseur, and Karlheinz Stockhausen, and his earliest works are squarely in the serialist camp. During the 1960s he began creating outline sketches for improvisation, and beginning in the 1970s became increasingly interested in environmental sound and the problem of noise pollution. In 1966 he was a founder of the Groupe d’Etude et Réalisation Musicales (GERM), and in 1979 founded the Laboratoire Acoustique et Musique Urbaine de l’Ecole d’Architecture de Paris La Villette, which he directed until 1990. Mariétan taught at the University of Paris (I et VIII) from 1969 to 1988 and at the Ecole d’Architecture de Paris la Villette in 1993. He was Director of the Conservatoire de Garges (Région parisienne) 1972–77, and was also a visiting lecturer at the Universities of Paris, Lille, Barcelona,Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, University of California San Diego, the Ecole Hautes Etudes Sociales Paris, Ecoles Nationales Supér

Regina Irman

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Regina Irman (born 22 March 1957) is a Swiss musician, music educator and composer. She has written commissions for a number of Swiss cultural institutions. She teaches at the Pädagogischen Hochschule Thurgau. She composes solo pieces, chamber music, choral works and music for theater. She was awarded the Landis & Gyr Stiftung Residency in London in 2007. Early life Regina Irman was born in Winterthur, Switzerland. In 1976 she studied music at the Winterthur Conservatory, and in 1982 received her teacher’s diploma with guitar as principal instrument. She also began to study percussion, and in 1995 received a concert diploma with distinction for percussion. Irman has studied under Roland Moser, Peter Streiff and Robert Rudisuli. Her first compositions were made while she was studying the guitar, and after 1983 she composed for a number of commissions, including the City of Zurich, the cultural foundation Pro Helvetia, the Women’s Congress of Bern, the Swiss Youth Music Competition, and various ensembles. She also works as a drummer and instrumental teacher. She is a lecturer at the Pädagogischen Hochschule Thurgau. She was awarded the Landis & Gyr Stiftung Residency in London in 200

René Wohlhauser

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René Wohlhauser (born 24 March 1954) is a Swiss composer, pianist, singer, improviser, conductor and music teacher. Life Wohlhauser was born in Zurich. From 1975 to 1979 he studied counterpoint, harmony, music analysis, score reading, orchestration and composition with Thomas Kessler, Robert Suter, Jacques Wildberger and Jürg Wyttenbach at the Basle Music Academy, earning a diploma in music theory. He went on to study composition with Kazimierz Serocki, Mauricio Kagel, Herbert Brün and Heinz Holliger, and for several years studied with Klaus Huber and Brian Ferneyhough. The latter had a decisive influence on Wohlhauser’s work. Wohlhauser currently teaches composition, improvisation and music theory at the Basle Music Academy. As a performer of contemporary music, he is heard all over Europe, recently mostly with his ensemble «Ensemble Polysono», as well as with soprano Christine Simolka. Wohlhauser has published several writings on music. Music Wohlhauser’s prolific output covers many musical genres. His compositions include solo, chamber, orchestral, organ and stage works. In his early works, Wohlhauser also made use of electro-acoustic techniques. In his works, extra-musical impu

Richard Flury

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Richard Flury (26 March 1896 in Biberist – 23 December 1967) was a Swiss composer and conductor. Flury was the son of a restaurateur and accomplished amateur trumpeter. His composition teachers were Hans Huber in Switzerland and Joseph Marx in Vienna. After studying abroad he returned to Switzerland, took a conducting course with Felix Weingartner in Basel, and then became a music teacher at his old school, the Solothurn Canton School, where he stayed for over 30 years, until 1961. He conducted the Solothurn City Orchestra from 1919 until 1949, also conducting various other local orchestras and choirs, playing in dance bands and teaching violin. There are four operas, four violin concertos, five symphonies, seven string quartets, eight masses, 11 violin sonatas and around 180 songs. He wrote an autobiography, Lebenserinnerungen (1950), which includes worklists. Flury married Lily Sollberger in 1924 and there were four children. They divorced and he married again in 1939, this time to a former violin pupil, Rita Gostele. At this time he helped Jewish musicians (such as Gottfried Kassowitz, a pupil of Schoenberg and Berg) secure musical positions in neutral Switzerland. There is a bu

Richard Wagner

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Early years#

Richard Wagner was born on 22 May 1813 to an ethnic German family in Leipzig, then part of the Confederation of the Rhine. His family lived at No 3, the Brühl (The House of the Red and White Lions) in Leipzig’s Jewish quarter. He was baptised at St. Thomas Church. He was the ninth, and youngest, child of Carl Friedrich Wagner, a clerk in the Leipzig police service, and his wife, Johanna Rosine Wagner, the daughter of a baker. Wagner’s father Carl died of typhoid fever six months after Richard’s birth. Afterwards, his mother Johanna lived with Carl’s friend, the actor and playwright Ludwig Geyer. In August 1814 Johanna and Geyer probably married, although no documentation of this has been found in the Leipzig church registers. She and her family moved to Geyer’s residence in Dresden. Until he was fourteen, Wagner was known as Wilhelm Richard Geyer. He almost certainly thought that Geyer was his biological father. Geyer’s love of the theatre came to be shared by his stepson, and Wagner took part in his performances. In his autobiography Mein Leben Wagner recalled once playing the part of an angel. In late 1820, Wagner was enrolled at Pastor Wetzel’s school at Possendorf, near Dresden, where he received some piano instruction from his Latin teacher. He struggled to play a proper scale at the keyboard and preferred playing theatre overtures by ear. Following Geyer’s death in 1821, Richard was sent to the Kreuzschule, the boarding school of the Dresdner Kreuzchor, at the expense of Geyer’s brother. At the age of nine he was hugely impressed by the Gothic elements of Carl Maria von Weber’s opera Der Freischütz, which he saw Weber conduct. At this period Wagner entertained ambitions as a playwright. His first creative effort, listed in the Wagner-Werk-Verzeichnis (the standard listing of Wagner’s works) as WWV 1, was a tragedy called Leubald. Begun when he was in school in 1826, the play was strongly influenced by Shakespeare and Goethe. Wagner was determined to set it to music and persuaded his family to allow him music lessons. By 1827, the family had returned to Leipzig. Wagner’s first lessons in harmony were taken during 1828–1831 with . In January 1828 he first heard Beethoven’s 7th Symphony and then, in March, the same composer’s 9th Symphony, both at the Gewandhaus. Beethoven became a major inspiration, and Wagner wrote a piano transcription of the 9th Symphony. He was also greatly impressed by a performance of Mozart’s Requiem. Wagner’s early piano sonatas and his first attempts at orchestral overtures date from this period. In 1829 he saw a performance by dramatic soprano Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient, who became his ideal of the fusion of drama and music in opera. In Mein Leben Wagner wrote, “When I look back across my entire life I find no event to place beside this in the impression it produced on me,” and claimed that the “profoundly human and ecstatic performance of this incomparable artist” kindled in him an “almost demonic fire”. In 1831, Wagner enrolled at the Leipzig University, where he became a member of the Saxon student fraternity. He took composition lessons with the Thomaskantor Theodor Weinlig. Weinlig was so impressed with Wagner’s musical ability that he refused any payment for his lessons. He arranged for his pupil’s Piano Sonata in B-flat major (which was consequently dedicated to him) to be published as Wagner’s Op. 1. A year later, Wagner composed his Symphony in C major, a Beethovenesque work performed in Prague in 1832 and at the Leipzig Gewandhaus in 1833. He then began to work on an opera, Die Hochzeit (The Wedding), which he never completed.

Rolf Liebermann

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Rolf Liebermann (14 September 1910 – 2 January 1999), was a Swiss composer and music administrator. He served as the artistic director of the Hamburg State Opera from 1959 to 1973 and again from 1985 to 1988. He was also the artistic director of the Paris Opera from 1973 to 1980. Life Liebermann was born in Zürich, and studied composition and conducting with Hermann Scherchen in Budapest and Vienna in the 1930s, and later with Wladimir Vogel in Basel. His compositional output involved several different musical genres, including chansons, classical, and light music. His classical music often combines myriad styles and techniques, including those drawn from baroque, classical, and twelve-tone music. Liebermann was the director of the Hamburg Staatsoper from 1959 to 1973, and again from 1985 to 1988. At the inaugural Eurovision Song Contest in 1956, Liebermann acted as the president of the jury; being responsible for moderating and finalising the results of the seven international juries judging the competition. In 1992 he served on the jury of the Paloma O’Shea Santander International Piano Competition in Spain. In 1989, he was the head of the jury at the 39th Berlin International Fi

Rudolf Kelterborn

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Rudolf Kelterborn (3 September 1931 – 24 March 2021) was a Swiss musician and composer. Life Born in Basel, Kelterborn studied in Basel, Detmold, Salzburg, and Zürich, among other places, with the composers Walther Geiser, Willy Burkhard, Boris Blacher, Günter Bialas, and Wolfgang Fortner. In his own teaching career, Kelterborn has served as a lecturer and professor at a number of music colleges in Germany and in Switzerland, where he directed the Basel Music Academy from 1983 to 1994. Kelterborn also headed the music division of Swiss German radio from 1974 to 1980. Farther afield, Kelterborn held guest lecturerships in the United States, England, Japan, China, and Eastern Europe. His works have been performed throughout Europe, the United States, and Japan, and he was also active as a conductor on the international scene. He died in Basel aged 89. Works Kelterborn’s oeuvre covers many different musical genres and includes five operas, orchestral works (some with solo instruments, voices, or electronics), chamber music, and vocal works. His four-act opera Der Kirschgarten inaugurated the newly rebuilt Zürich Opera House in 1984. References * Andreas Briner: Rudolf Kelterborn: Komp

Stefan Lano

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Stefan Lano (born 1952) is a composer and music director, currently serving as the music and artistic director of the National Symphony Orchestra of Uruguay. He previously served an extensive career with the Vienna State Opera. Early life and education Lano was born in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1952 and is of Albanian descent. He attended Worcester Academy, graduating in 1970. He studied Biology and Composition at Oberlin College and Oberlin Conservatory of Music before attending Harvard University on a full fellowship, where he gained a PhD in Musical Composition. The 1976 premier of his Sinfonie N° 1 afforded him his initial experience in the symphonic genre, both as composer and conductor at the Newport Music Festival. During his time in Berlin, he continued piano studies as well as conducting under Professor Hans Martin Rabenstein. It was during this period that he composed his Sinfonie N° 2 (Grodek) before assuming a position as pianist at the opera house in Graz, Austria. Symphony career In 1982, he worked under Lorin Maazel as répétiteur at the Vienna State Opera, a position which he held until his appointment by Maazel as Associate Conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony fro

Sylvie Courvoisier

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Sylvie Courvoisier (born 30 November 1968) is a Swiss American composer, pianist, improviser and bandleader. She was born and raised in Lausanne, Switzerland, and has been a resident of New York City since 1998. She won Germany’s International Jazz Piano Prize in 2022 , the Swiss Grand Prix and The American Academy of Arts and Letters Music Award in 2025. Courvoisier has earned her renown for balancing two distinct worlds: the classically minded chamber music of her European roots and the grooving, hook-laden sounds of the avant-jazz scene in New York. She ranges from playing with her longtime jazz trio (featuring bassist Drew Gress and drummer Kenny Wollesen ) to performing Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring in league with new-music pianist Cory Smythe, among other genre-bounding ventures. Courvoisier has collaborated over the past two decades with such luminaries as John Zorn, Wadada Leo Smith, Evan Parker, Ikue Mori, Ned Rothenberg, Fred Frith, Mark Feldman, Christian Fennesz, Israel Galván and Mary Halvorson. Courvoisier has toured the world from Europe and North America to South America, Asia and Australia. She teaches as a member of the faculty of New School of Jazz (The New School)

Theodor W. Adorno

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Theodor W. Adorno (; ; born Theodor Ludwig Wiesengrund; 11 September 1903 – 6 August 1969) was a German philosopher, cultural, and music critic. He was a leading member of the Frankfurt School of critical theory, whose work has come to be associated with thinkers such as Ernst Bloch, Walter Benjamin, Max Horkheimer, Erich Fromm, and Herbert Marcuse, for whom the works of Sigmund Freud, Karl Marx, and G. W. F. Hegel were essential to a critique of modern society. As a critic of both fascism and what he called the culture industry, his writings—such as Dialectic of Enlightenment (1947), Minima Moralia (1951), and Negative Dialectics (1966)—strongly influenced the European New Left. In an intellectual climate shaped by existentialism and logical positivism, Adorno developed a dialectical conception of history and philosophy that challenged the foundations of both, anticipating the divide that would later emerge between the analytic and continental traditions. As a classically trained musician, Adorno studied composition with Alban Berg of the Second Viennese School, influenced by his early admiration for the music of Arnold Schoenberg. Adorno’s commitment to avant-garde music formed t

Thomas Fortmann

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Thomas Fortmann (born 1951) is a Swiss composer and founder of the “Accademia Amiata, Toscana delle Culture”, and “ClaZZ Festival”. Youth and pop career Born in Gerzensee Fortmann, also known as Tommy Fortmann, son of the Swiss soprano Greta Saar and the entrepreneur Rudolf Fortmann, was born in Gerzensee in the canton of Bern as the first of two children. At 17, he wrote his first pop/rock hit, which was released in 27 countries. In collaboration with the producer Dieter Dierks, over 100 of his songs were released by United Artists, CBS, EMI, Decca-Telefunken, Ariola, Phonogram, Hansa and others.During this time he worked with Jürgen Drews, , Alexis Korner, Toni Vescoli, Daniela Davoli etc. The conclusion of his rock/pop career made the music for the musical Tell, in which Udo Lindenberg played the leading role. Contemporary music career At the age of 26 he turned to the study of classical music. He then composed mainly chamber works, but also two symphonies, an oratorio, concertos, songs and several music stage works with commissions and scholarships from the Swiss Federal Office for Cultural Affairs, Zurich Opera House etc Constant development and the search for the appropriate

Thüring Bräm

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Thüring Bräm (born 10 April 1944) is a Swiss composer and conductor. Bräm graduated from a high school in Basel. He then studied piano, conducting and composition in Basel and musicology at the University of Basel and the University of Heidelberg. He worked as a conductor and répétiteur at the Curtis Institute of Music, the Aspen Music Festival and School and holds a Master of Arts in Composition from the University of California, Berkeley. From 1973 to 1987 he was a member of the board of the City of Basel Music Academy and from 1987 to 1999 director of the Conservatory of Lucerne. From 1999 to 2001 he was founding rector of the Lucerne College of Music. From 2000 to 2006 he was a board member of the Association Européenne des Conservatoire. He is a member of the research council of the Swiss National Science Foundation. From 1984 to 1990 he was president of the Jeunesses Musicales de Suisse. Bräm was from 1987 to 2006 chief conductor of the Junge Philharmonie Zentralschweiz. He is head of the Regio choir Binningen/Basel, and a regular guest conductor of the Chamber Philharmonic Pardubice. He gave master classes in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Argentina. He is a jury member of

Tona Scherchen

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Tona Scherchen, also Tona Scherchen-Hsiao (Simplified Chinese: 萧桐; born 12 March 1938), is one of the first composers who brought Chinese elements into European avant-garde art music. Life Tona Scherchen was born into a musical family in Neuchâtel. Her father was conductor Hermann Scherchen and her mother was composer Xiao Shuxian. She spent the first 12 years of her life in Europe, particularly in Switzerland. She arrived in China in 1950 with her mother and her older sister Féfé. In 1956, just a year before China fell into political chaos, she returned to Europe to be with her father in order to pursue further music education. Her teachers included György Ligeti and Hans Werner Henze. After the 1960s, Scherchen had become an active composer, titles of her music were frequently seen in contemporary music programmes. Her works were published by prominent publishers, and several articles on her as a composer can be found, although after some appearances in 1980s, she seemingly ceased to catch attention beyond her French circle. Music Scherchen’s music is an adaption of the avant-garde idioms of the European 1960s, ’70s, synthesized with a language of her own. Many of her composition

Ulrich Stranz

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Ulrich Stranz (10 May 1946 – 27 April 2004) was a German teacher and composer. Life Born in Neumarkt-Sankt Veit, Upper Bavaria, Musik für zwei Violoncelli und Orchester (1999/2000) together with Horst Lohse, Wolfgang Rihm and Manfred Trojahn) * 1976 in the category composition * 1980 Villa Massimo * 1992 Schneider-Schott Music Prize * 2000 References Further reading * Stranz, Ulrich. In Marc Honegger, Günther Massenkeil (ed.): Das große Lexikon der Musik in 8 Bänden. Volume 8, Herder Verlag, Freiburg i.Br. 1982, , . * Thomas Gartmann: Stranz, Ulrich. In Wilhelm Ziehr (Red.): Schweizer Lexikon in 6 Bänden. Volume 6, Verlag Schweizer Lexikon, Lucerne 1993, , . External links * * * Stranz, Ulrich on the Swiss Nationalphonothek * Ulrich Stranz Bayerisches Musiker-Lexikon Online * Ulrich Stranz dream.cs.bath.ac.uk p. 16

Walter Courvoisier

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Walter Courvoisier (7 February 1875 – 27 December 1931) was a Swiss composer. Life Born in Riehen, Courvoisier was a son of the surgeon Ludwig Georg Courvoisier. He initially studied medicine and worked as a doctor after obtaining his doctorate. In 1902 he went to Munich to study music. He was a student of Selmar Bagge and Ludwig Thuille - whose son-in-law he became - and then taught at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München, first music theory, and later music composition. Courvoisier died in Locarno at the age of 66. Compositions Operas * Lanzelot und Elaine, musical drama in four acts; libretto: Berta Thiersch, pseudonym “Walter Bergh” (1910–12, first performance Munich 1917) * Die Krähen (The Crows), comedy in one act; libretto: Alois Wohlmuth (1919/20, first performance Munich 1920) * Der Sünde Zauberei (The Sin of Magic), opera in one prelude and two scenes; libretto: Joseph von Eichendorff after Pedro Calderón de la Barca (1929, unperformed) online Vocal works * The Muse, for baritone and orchestra op. 4; after Heinrich Leuthold (1903) * Gruppe aus dem Tartarus, ballad for mixed choir and orchestra Op. 5; after Friedrich Schiller (1904) * Der Dinurstrom, ballad for mix

Werner Bärtschi

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Werner Bärtschi (born 1 January 1950) is a Swiss composer and classical pianist. Life Born in Zurich, Bärtschi studied piano with Sava Savoff, Jürg Wyttenbach and Rolf Mäser, composition with Armin Schibler, Klaus Huber and Rudolf Kelterborn and orchestral conducting with Erich Schmid at the Universities of Zurich and Basel. He was influenced by the music of John Cage and Dieter Schnebel. In 1980, Bärtschi founded the concert series Rezital Zürich. In 1987, he became artistic director of the Musikkollegium Zürcher Oberland. From 1990 to 1992, he was president of the music commission of the city of Zurich. He is also the initiator of cycles and festivals such as the Satie season (1980/81), the Ives cycle (1985/86) and the June Festival Week (1991). Bärtschi is active in the composers’ secretariat in Zurich, which includes Ulrich Gasser, Max E. Keller, Martin Sigrist and . He brought works by John Cage, Klaus Huber, Wladimir Rudolfowitsch Vogel, Dieter Schnebel, Terry Riley and Wilhelm Killmayer to their world premieres. Among his students were Alfons Karl Zwicker and . In 1983, he won the Grand Prix du Disque. Recordings * Pierre Mariétan (Grammont Porträt, 1992) * Kreuzende Wege –

Werner Kaegi (composer)

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Werner Kaegi (17 June 1926 – 16 March 2024) was a Swiss electronic composer, musicologist and educator. During the 1960s, he promoted electronic music in his home country. In the 1970s, as a composer and researcher at Utrecht’s Institute of Sonology, The Netherlands, he developed pioneering programs in the field of computer-generated music. Early life Kaegi was born in Uznach, in the St. Gallen canton, on 17 June 1926, as the third child of Heinrich Kaegi and Clara Kaegi-Schlaepfer. In their parental home he came into contact with classical music literature at an early age because a lot of music was being played at home. His father in particular was a passionate amateur violinist. His sister played excellent piano, and his brother played violin, viola and flute. The young Werner soon proved able to arrange pieces for the house concerts. From six years he received clarinet and piano lessons. He studied mathematical logic and music in Zürich, Heidelberg and Basel, and music composition in Zürich, Basel, Salzburg and Paris. In 1951, blending his interests for mathematics and music, he received his doctorate with a study of the structure of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Inventions and Fugues

Werner Wehrli

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Werner Wehrli (8 January 1892 – 27 June 1944) was a Swiss composer. He was one of the most renowned Swiss composers in the period between the world wars. Life Born in Aarau, Wehrli had a solid musical education, which he acquired in Zurich, Berlin, Frankfurt and Basel. In Basel he completed his composition studies in 1918 with Hans Huber and Hermann Suter. His time in Frankfurt - where Wehrli studied as a fellow student of Paul Hindemith after winning the Frankfurt Mozart Prize in 1914, and where he met his future wife, the singer Irma Bartholomae - was of particular influence on his musical development. In 1918 Wehrli took up a position as a music teacher at the Aargauischen Lehrerinnenseminar (today ) and held it until his death in 1944. In addition, he was active as music pedagogue, as folk song collector, bells expert, music writer and poet. As conductor, Wehrli conducted the Cäcilienverein Aarau from 1920 to 1929 and the Frauenchor Brugg from 1924 to 1939. Since the twenties his reputation has grown steadily, which was expressed in performances of his song cycles and chamber music works at the annual Tonkünstlerfests, in performances of his stage works and repeated commissions

Will Eisenmann

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Will Eisenmann (3 March 1906 in Stuttgart – 20 August 1992 in Canton of Lucerne) was a German-Swiss composer. His opera Der König der dunklen Kammer, based on a work by Rabindranath Tagore, won the Emil Hertzka Prize. Selected works ;Stage * Der König der dunklen Kammer, Opera in 13 Scenes, op. 12 (1934–1935); words by Rabindranath Tagore * Bethsabé, Drama-Pantomime-Oratorio in 3 scenes for tenor, baritone, speaking voices, actors, pantomimists and orchestra, op. 17 (1936); libretto by André Gide * Leonce und Lena, Lyric Comedy in 3 acts for 7 soloists, 5 speaking parts and a large orchestra, op. 36 (1943–1945); libretto by Georg Büchner ;Orchestral * Die Stadt for string orchestra, op. 7 (1932–1933) * Primavera española, op. 10 (1934) * Die gläserne Wand (Davoser Impressionen) for small orchestra, op. 11 (1934) * Musique en forme de spirale for small orchestra, op. 18 (1937) * Trauermusik (Epitaphe pour Maurice Ravel), op. 21 (1938) * Sieben Bilder nach Vincent van Gogh, op. 22 (1938) * Symphony for string orchestra, op. 42 (1947) * Musica concertante, op. 96 (1977–1978) ;Concertante * Concerto for alto saxophone and orchestra, op. 24 (1938) * Concerto da camera for alto saxophone

Willy Burkhard

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Willy Burkhard (17 April 1900 – 18 June 1955) was a Swiss composer and academic teacher, influential in both capacities. He taught music theory at the Berne Conservatory and the Zürich Conservatory. His works include an opera, oratorios, cantatas, and many instrumental genres from piano pieces to symphonies. Life Burkhard was born in Evilard, Canton of Bern. * Lob der Musik, cantata, Op. 54, solo vv, chorus, orch, c1939 * Cantate Domino, Op. 61/2, S, chorus, str, timp, 1940 * Heimatliche Kantate, text by Gottfried Keller, Op. 61/3, Mez/Bar, unison vv ad lib, orch, 1940 * Kreuzvolk der Schweiz, text by Meyer, Op. 61/4, chorus, org, 1941 * Das Jahr, oratorio, text by H. Hiltbrunner, Op. 62, solo vv, chorus, orch, 1942 * Christi Leidensverkündigung, cantata, Op. 65, T, small chorus, org, 1942 * Cantique de notre terre, text by J. P. Zimmermann, Op. 67, solo vv, chorus, orch, 1943 * Mass, Op. 85, soprano, bass, choir and orchestra, 1951 * Psalmen-Kantate, Op. 90, S, chorus, org, chbr orch, 1952 * Ps clxviii, Op. 96, Psalm ?, unison vv, insts, 1954 Unaccompanied choral works * 2 Choruses, Op. 2, 1923 * Cantata, text from the Bible, Op. 3, tenor and choir, 1923 * Motets, Op. 10, boys’ ch

Wladimir Vogel

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Wladimir Rudolfowitsch Vogel (17 February 1896 – 19 June 1984) was a Swiss composer of German and Russian descent. Life Born in Moscow, Vogel first studied composition in Moscow with Alexander Scriabin, then between 1918 and 1924 with Heinz Tiessen and Ferruccio Busoni in Berlin, where he subsequently taught (1930–33) at the Klindworth-Scharwenka Conservatory. He was close to the expressionist circle around Herwarth Walden and was active in the music section of the November Group of Max Butting and Hans Heinz Stuckenschmidt. In 1933, he left Germany as he was branded a “degenerate artist” and hunted by the Nazi regime due to his Jewish heritage and his involvement with the avantgardist Neue Musik scene. From 1939 he lived in Switzerland, at first in Ascona and from 1964 in Zürich. Although Vogel was not permitted to work in Switzerland prior to his naturalisation in 1954, he taught composition privately and was active in various musical organisations, such as the ISCM. He also attended Hermann Scherchen’s ‘Sessions d’études musicales et dramatiques’ and organized the International Twelve-Tone Music pre-conference in Osilina in 1949. During this time, he was financially dependent on

Yang Jing (composer)

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Yang Jing (; born Dec.1963) is a composer based in central Switzerland, a legendary concert pipa soloist and Bandleader. Early life and education Yang was born in Anyang in Henan province, China. According to Yang, she came from an educated family that was regarded with suspicion during the Cultural Revolution. Her mother worked in a hospital, and her father was an army officer. Her grandfather died in prison after being accused of counterrevolution. She started playing the pipa, the Chinese plucked lute, at the age of six. From 1976, at the age of 12, she started performing in an ensemble at the Henan Opera music Theater. From the age of 18, Yang studied at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, and graduated in 1986. In 1997, she went to Japan to study with composer Minoru Miki, as she started to explore contemporary music, and later performed and recorded pipa concertos by Miki with Japanese orchestras. She worked with Japanese traditional instrumental soloists. In 2003, she moved with her family to Switzerland and completed a Master’s degree in Contemporary music Composition and Theory, as well as Jazz music at the Hochschule der Künste Bern 10 years later. Career Yang worked in t