Artistic director

To conceive concert programs for unusual environments, to put classical music off its traditional scents and to open the door for other arts– among my different activities as musician, being an artistic director became on of my favourite ones. Be it for a musical conception as chief conductor, for a pulse for education- projects or for the curatorship of a festival, I have always appreciated to play with different, apparently disparate ideas  in order to create a new entity. I like to play with several constellations between place, (hi)story, sound, space and message to the public which is constantly in the centre of my suggestions (it is the audience who achieves art in his own perception, isn’t it ?).

Some of my most inspiring experiences in the field of cultural mediation were: Projects from Piazzolla to Pergamon with Mirella Weingarten,  ‘Im Orchestergraben‘ with Ursus&Nadeschkin, a hilarating collision between comedy and classical music, a concert with Swiss yodeller Nadja Räss on a floating scene and Pascal Viglino playing the Theremin during the Ittinger Pfingstkonzerte.

I also remember with a lot of joy some unforgettable concerts which I have organized for the Davos Festival – young artists in concert, e.g. The Magic Mountain by Gregory Vajda, an opera première in the lobby of the historical Hotel Schatzalp, international choreographies in the carpenter’s shop Küenzli AG, the  so-called Nomads’ concerts in the scenery of Davos‘ hills and fields, the yong composers’ workshops in the Kirchner Museum…

In my function as Head of the Music Department of the Berne University of the Arts HKB, I also feel the necessity to communicate and teach musical intermediation to our students : education projects, creative participation of the audience, performing musical comments – based on Barbara Balba Weber’s concept of ‘Künstlerische Musikvermittlung’, we hope to train our future professionals in an efficient way to prepare them for a wide-spread musical life, always respecting different social and cultural environments.