Oliver Schnyder
Encyclopedia
Oliver Schnyder in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
) is a Swiss classical
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
pianist
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
.
Education
Oliver Schnyder studied with Emmy Henz-Diémand (teaching and concert diploma of the Swiss Music Pedagogic AssociationSwiss Music Pedagogic Association
The Swiss Music Pedagogic Association is the umbrella organisation of music educators, pedagogues and music teachers in...
SMPA, 1994), and until graduating with the soloist diploma in 1998 from the master class
Master class
A master class is a class given to students of a particular discipline by an expert of that discipline—usually music, but also painting, drama, or any of the arts....
of Homero Francesch
Homero Francesch
Homero Francesch is a Uruguay-born Swiss pianist.He attended piano lessons under Santiago Baranda Reyes in Uruguay and in 1967 he was awarded a scholarship by the German Academic Exchange Service...
at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Zürich (Zurich University of the Arts), which was followed by a short study with Ruth Laredo
Ruth Laredo
Ruth Laredo was an American classical pianist.She became known in the 1970s in particular for her premiere recordings of the 10 sonatas of Scriabin and the complete solo piano works of Rachmaninoff, for her Ravel recordings and in the last 16½ years before her death for her series in the...
at the Manhattan School of Music
Manhattan School of Music
The Manhattan School of Music is a major music conservatory located on the Upper West Side of New York City. The school offers degrees on the bachelors, masters, and doctoral levels in the areas of classical and jazz performance and composition...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
(1998), and from 1998 to 2001 in the master class of Leon Fleisher
Leon Fleisher
Leon Fleisher is an American pianist and conductor.-Early life and studies:Fleisher was born in San Francisco, where he started studying the piano at age four...
in Baltimore
Baltimore
Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...
(Graduate Performance Diploma, 2001).
Concerts and recordings
Since his recital debut in the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing ArtsJohn F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is a performing arts center located on the Potomac River, adjacent to the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C...
in Washington D.C. and his solo debut with the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich under David Zinman
David Zinman
David Zinman is an American conductor and violinist.After early violin studies at the Oberlin Conservatory, Zinman studied theory and composition at the University of Minnesota and took up conducting at Tanglewood...
at the Orpheum Music Festival for the advancement of young soloists in Zurich
Zürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
, Oliver Schnyder has given concerts worldwide. He has performed as a soloist, recitalist and chamber music
Chamber music
Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...
player in all of Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, in North
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
and South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
and the Far East
Far East
The Far East is an English term mostly describing East Asia and Southeast Asia, with South Asia sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons.The term came into use in European geopolitical discourse in the 19th century,...
and has been a guest on stages in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
(Wigmore Hall
Wigmore Hall
Wigmore Hall is a leading international recital venue that specialises in hosting performances of chamber music and is best known for classical recitals of piano, song and instrumental music. It is located at 36 Wigmore Street, London, UK and was built to provide London with a venue that was both...
), New York (Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
), Washington D.C. (Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts), Osaka
Osaka
is a city in the Kansai region of Japan's main island of Honshu, a designated city under the Local Autonomy Law, the capital city of Osaka Prefecture and also the biggest part of Keihanshin area, which is represented by three major cities of Japan, Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe...
(Izumi Hall), Taipei
Taipei
Taipei City is the capital of the Republic of China and the central city of the largest metropolitan area of Taiwan. Situated at the northern tip of the island, Taipei is located on the Tamsui River, and is about 25 km southwest of Keelung, its port on the Pacific Ocean...
(National Concert Hall) and at international festivals (among others at the Lucerne Festival
Lucerne Festival
- History :The festival was founded in 1938 with a series of concerts in the gardens of Wagner's villa conducted by Arturo Toscanini, who had formed an orchestra with members of different orchestras and soloists for the concert...
and the Menuhin Festival Gstaad). As a soloist Oliver Schnyder continues to perform with among others the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich and the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne
WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne
The WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne is a German orchestra based in Cologne. The orchestra was founded in 1947 by Allied occupation authorities after World War II, as the orchestra of Nordwestdeutschen Rundfunk . The orchestra later acquired the names of the Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra and...
.
Numerous radio and TV recordings – e.g. for the Swiss Radio DRS 2
DRS 2
DRS 2 is the second radio station from Schweizer Radio DRS. The station was launched in 1956.Programming on the station includes culture and knowledge. launched in 1956 with the introduction of FM broadcasting. FM made it possible to broadcast in a higher quality compared to the previously used...
and the Swiss TV SF 1
SF 1
SF 1 is a Swiss television channel run under the public SRG SSR idée suisse broadcasting group. It is the first of the three national German language channels in Switzerland ....
and for the Bayerischer
Bayerischer Rundfunk
Bayerischer Rundfunk [Bavarian Broadcasting] is the public broadcasting authority for the German Freistaat of Bavaria, with its main offices located in Munich. BR is a member of ARD.- Legal foundation :...
, Norddeutscher
Norddeutscher Rundfunk
Norddeutscher Rundfunk is a public radio and television broadcaster, based in Hamburg. In addition to the city-state of Hamburg, NDR transmits for the German states of Lower Saxony, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Schleswig-Holstein...
, Hessischer
Hessischer Rundfunk
Hessischer Rundfunk is the public broadcaster for the German state of Hesse. The main offices of HR are in Frankfurt am Main. HR is a member of the ARD.- Studios :...
and Südwestdeutscher Rundfunk
Südwestrundfunk
The Südwestrundfunk is a public broadcasting company for the southwest of Germany, specifically the states of Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate. The company has main offices in three cities: Stuttgart, Baden-Baden and Mainz, with the director's office being in Stuttgart. It is an...
– document Schnyder's playing.
After his CD debut with Sony Masterworks RCA Red Seal (the 2-CDs Mozart album Contrasts with piano concertos together with the Camerata Bern
Camerata Bern
Located in Bern, Switzerland, the Camerata Bern was founded in 1963 by musicians as a small and flexible chamber orchestra without a conductor. The Camerata Bern performs early Baroque to contemporary classical music...
and the complete piano works in minor), Schnyder released a record with piano works of Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....
in June 2010. Other CDs were published by Avie Records
Avie Records
Avie Records is an independent classical music recording company founded in 2002 by Simon Foster and Melanne Mueller.Many major classical music recording artists like Trevor Pinnock, conductors Michael Tilson Thomas, Semyon Bychkov and viol consort Phantasm record for Avie, which has released more...
, ClassicO
Classico
"Classico" is a song by American rock band Tenacious D, featured on their 2006 second studio album The Pick of Destiny. The song also features on the band's 2006 movie Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny, for which the album is the soundtrack....
, Musiques Suisses, Phoenix Records and Telos Records.
He is managed by Arbetter Artists in Zurich.
Selected scholarships, prizes and awards
- Pizzicato Supersonic AwardPizzicato MagazinePizzicato is a magazine published monthly in Luxembourg by Artevents Ltd., devoted to classical music. It contains news, features and interviews as well as CD and DVD reviews. It was founded in 1991 by the Luxembourgish journalist Remy Franck. The magazine is a member in the Jury of the , ICMA. It...
, LuxembourgLuxembourgLuxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland in the south...
, 2010 and 2011 - tz-Rose der Woche, MunichMunichMunich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
, 2009 - Orpheum Foundation for the Advancement of Young SoloistsOrpheum Foundation for the Advancement of Young SoloistsThe Orpheum Foundation for the Advancement of Young Soloists is a Swiss foundation of international orientation based in Zurich. Its purpose is to encourage budding soloists in the field of classical music.-Activities:...
, Zurich, 2002 - Milholland Award for Piano of the Peabody Conservatory, 2001
- First Prize at the Pembaur Competition, BerneBerneThe city of Bern or Berne is the Bundesstadt of Switzerland, and, with a population of , the fourth most populous city in Switzerland. The Bern agglomeration, which includes 43 municipalities, has a population of 349,000. The metropolitan area had a population of 660,000 in 2000...
, 1999 - Soloist Competition of the Swiss Council for Music, BoswilBoswilBoswil is a municipality in the district of Muri in the canton of Aargau in Switzerland.The village lies in the Bünztal valley at the foot of the Lindenberg mountain...
, 1991 - Swiss Young Musicians Competition, LucerneLucerneLucerne is a city in north-central Switzerland, in the German-speaking portion of that country. Lucerne is the capital of the Canton of Lucerne and the capital of the district of the same name. With a population of about 76,200 people, Lucerne is the most populous city in Central Switzerland, and...
, 1986
Solo albums
- BrahmsJohannes BrahmsJohannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist, and one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...
, Mendelssohn, SchubertFranz SchubertFranz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...
– piano works, art unity, 2001 - FauréGabriel FauréGabriel Urbain Fauré was a French composer, organist, pianist and teacher. He was one of the foremost French composers of his generation, and his musical style influenced many 20th century composers...
, DebussyClaude DebussyClaude-Achille Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions...
, MussorgskyModest MussorgskyModest Petrovich Mussorgsky was a Russian composer, one of the group known as 'The Five'. He was an innovator of Russian music in the romantic period...
– piano works, art unity, 2002 - Chopin RecitalFrédéric ChopinFrédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist. He is considered one of the great masters of Romantic music and has been called "the poet of the piano"....
, Telos, 2008 - MozartWolfgang Amadeus MozartWolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
– Contrasts, Sony Masterworks, 2010 - SchumannRobert SchumannRobert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....
– Piano Works, Sony Music, 2010
Ensemble albums
- Rolf Urs Ringger – Aria amorosa, The Golden Heat of Midday, Feuillages, Klavierstücke 1987-98, MigrosMigrosMigros is one of Switzerland's largest enterprises, its largest supermarket chain and largest employer. It co-founded Turkey's largest retailer, Migros Türk, which became independent of Migros Switzerland in 1975....
, 2001 - David Philip HeftiDavid Philip HeftiDavid Philip Hefti , winner of the prestigious Gustav Mahler Competition and of the George Enescu Competition, studied at the Conservatories of Winterthur, Zurich and Carlsruhe, taking composition, conducting, clarinet and chamber music. His mentors included Wolfgang Rihm, Cristóbal Halffter,...
– Sator, DRS 2DRS 2DRS 2 is the second radio station from Schweizer Radio DRS. The station was launched in 1956.Programming on the station includes culture and knowledge. launched in 1956 with the introduction of FM broadcasting. FM made it possible to broadcast in a higher quality compared to the previously used...
and Telos, 2006. With Collegium Novum Zürich and the Zürcher Kammerensemble - David Philip Hefti – Tenet, DRS 2 and Edition Kunzelmann, 2007. With the Zürcher Kammerensemble
- Rosenblätter, Quantaphon, 2007. With mezzosoprano Judith Schmid
- Franz SchubertFranz SchubertFranz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...
– Klaviertrio D.929Piano Trio No. 2 (Schubert)The Trio No. 2 in E-flat major for piano, violin, and violoncello, D. 929, was one of the last compositions completed by Franz Schubert, dated November 1827. It was published by Probst as opus 100 in late 1828, shortly before the composer's death and first performed at a private party in January...
, Klaviersonate D.664Piano Sonata in A major, D. 664 (Schubert)The Piano Sonata No. 13 in A major, D.664 is a sonata for solo piano composed by Franz Schubert in the summer of 1819. The work is in three movements:* I. Allegro moderato* II. Andante in D major* III. Allegro...
, Solo Musica, 2010. As Trio Opus 100 with Marina Yakovleva and Claudius Hermann. The recording won Pizzicato's Supersonic Award in March 2011.