Swiss Contemporary Music
Michael Wertmüller, a portrait by Gabrielle Weber
Michael Wertmüller’s music sounds anarchic, virtuosic and highly energetic. From the shortest compositions to immersive, expansive music theatre, his works combine approaches from jazz and contemporary music, always dramatic, intense and full on. A portrait by Gabrielle Weber
Continue reading “Making utopias come true: composer Michael Wertmüller”
Marc Kilchenmann doesn’t like to repeat himself, what he appreciates is delving deeper when he takes on a subject. For his piece Murhabala, he focussed the women’s struggle for freedom in Iran. In the musical form, overtone and undertone structures meet and clash, sometimes harmoniously, sometimes in dissonant frictions.
A portrait by Friederike Kenneweg
Since the 2024/2025 season, Composer Andreas Eduardo Frank is the new Artistic Director & Co-Director of Basel’s Gare du Nord, one of the most important venues for contemporary music in Switzerland. Frank’s own works are multimedia, playful, humorous and often more political than one might think at first glance. A portrait by Jaronas Scheurer
Continue reading “Andreas Eduardo Frank: Collaborative composing and meta-composing”
Nora Vetter, Lucerne based viola player and composer, benefited in 2023-2024 of the Migros Culture Percentage’s Double Classic network. Each year, this mentoring platform enables several musicians to work on a specific project in depth and supported by a coach. On this occasion, we look back at her creative process and her impressions after a year of coaching, which led to the production of a new work for solo drums. A Portrait by Alexandre Babel.
Portrait Nora Vetter zVg. Nora Vetter Continue reading “Nora Vetter / Performative contexts”
Gabrielle Weber: Lausanne Underground Film and Music Festival awarded music prize
LUFF, Lausanne Underground Film and Music Festival, has been programming experimental music to accompany a selected film programme in Lausanne since 2002. This year, the festival received one of the special music prizes from the Federal Office of Culture (BAK). A few weeks before the start of this year’s edition, I met three members of the management team at the new Lausanne cultural centre Pyxis, right next to the cathedral in Lausanne’s old town, which is where LUFF’s offices are located. A conversation with Thibault Walter and Dimitri Meier, artistic directors of the music programme, and Marie Klay, managing director.
Continue reading “LUFF: Music award for Noise from Lausanne”
A portrait of cellist Sol Gabetta by Florian Hauser
Sol Gabetta, cellist, cosmopolitan and Swiss by choice, was awarded the Grand Prix suisse de musique 2024
Florian Hauser
What does it take for a global career in classical music? Talent, luck, a strong personality and last but not least, the willingness to get involved in teamwork, i.e. working with an artist agency, press agency and record label. Sol Gabetta does it all.
Continue reading “Sol Gabetta awarded the Grand Prix Suisse de musique 2024”
Marianthi Papalexandri-Alexandri’s works are fascinating for seeing and hearing. Her pieces, which consists of a variety of objects, sound installations and performances, surprise visitors and listeners with the simplicity and elegance of their functioning. During my meeting with the artist, we discussed the intimate relationship between objects and sound.
Continue reading “Marianthi Papalexandri-Alexandri and the independence of objects”
At only seven years of age the Swiss Museum and Centre of Electronic Musical Instruments (SMEM) already won one of the Swiss Music Awards’ three special prizes. The museum is located in Fribourg and allows to experience technology, history and practice of electronic music-making.
Continue reading “The Swiss Museum and Centre for Electronic Music Instruments – a living archive”
He mixes sound, performance, video and theatre with cooking, sport, thrillers and environmental activism. Young composer Léo Collin born in France and now living in Zurich, produces evocative music theatre happenings. I visited him in his studio, located in Zurich’s Rote Fabrik.
Continue reading “Meta-layers and broken fascination in Léo Collin’s music theatre ”
A pioneer of vocal artistry – US-American vocalist Lauren Newton.
Her passion for exploring the full potential of the voice drives her work in free improvisation, jazz and contemporary music. Closely associated with the Swiss experimental music scene, she taught jazz vocal performance and free improvisation at the Lucerne University of Music (HSLU) between 1993 and 2019.
