|
Olivia Steiner was born in 1981 in Basel. At the age of 9 years, she began to play guitar. The enthusiasm for this instrument was already large after the first contact. During her youth time she could gain many experiences also within the chamber-musical range. As soloist and together with the guitar quartet TEE (TransEuropeanExpress) she performed regularly and won several prices at competitions, not least even the cultural price of the municipality Aesch. The Swiss composer Jürg Kindle released a CD on which the ensemble played several of his compositions (as debut performance Kalimba, Kangogi, Berimbao).
In 2001 Olivia Steiner began her professional studies at the Hochchule für Musik in Basel with Walter Feybli, which she finished in 2005 with the teaching diploma. She continued her studies in 2005 at the Haute Ecole de Musique in Fribourg with Joaquim Freire and finished it successfully in June 2007 with the concert diploma. Regularly she visited master classes with Pepe Romero, David Tanenbaum, Hubert Käppel, Dusan Bogdanovic, Carlo Marchione and others.
Since 2001 she has been studying as well classical music of north India (vocal and instrumental with the stringed instrument Sarod) at the Ali Akbar Khan College of Music in Basel with Ken Zuckerman.
Not only the soloist and chamber-musical concert activity in different formations with singing, violin and transverse flute, but also the educational work with children, young people and adults is an important factor of her working. She accomplished already various musical projects with kindergarten children and guitar pupils. At present, she teaches at the music schools of PrattelnAugst-Giebenach, Laufental-Thierstein and Oftringen.
She is interested strongly in the musicworld of other cultures, which she studied on numerous journeys through other continents. Together with the formation Mahal she performs regularly. Their repertoire covers Ethno music with influences from Africa and Asia, which are likewise played on authentic instruments.
Her program at the 22nd Festival International de la Guitare in Fribourg will contain compositions with influences of diverse cultures. We may look forward to a varied concert evening with a virtuoso musician.
|
|
Laurent Mettraux was born in 1970, in Fribourg (Switzerland). He completed the studies of analysis, counterpoint, harmony and fugue with René Oberson at the Music Academy of Fribourg, as well as piano, violin and singing. He continued his studies in Geneva (composition with Prof. Eric Gaudibert, conducting with Prof. Liang-Sheng Chen), while following also courses of ancient music and musicology. He received a prize of the Kiefer-Hablitzel Foundation (Association of Swiss Musicians). Counsels and courses with, among others, Klaus Huber, Luis de Pablo, Heinz Holliger, Arvo Pärt, Paul Méfano.
His Symphony for chamber orchestra won in 1993 the 1st Prize and Public Prize of the 1st Competition for young composers, organized by the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne. He has been laureate of several foundations, and finalist of, among others, the European Competition of Choral Composition (Amiens, France). His work “Ombre“ (“Shadow“) for orchestra, won 1998 the prize of the prestigious Donaueschinger Musiktage, given for the first time (among the members of the Jury: Wolfgang Rihm, Sylvain Cambreling, Gérard Grisey, Christian Wolff). He is also honoured in 2000 with a contribution ad personam from the UBS Kulturstiftung for his “remarkable partaking to the musical life in Switzerland and abroad“.
He receives numerous orders, as much from the interpreters as from concert associations, festivals, broadcasting and foundations.
His works are more and more performed, as well in Switzerland as in other countries. His style is appreciated as well by specialists of contemporary music and musicians as by the public. He is also one of the youngest composers about whom a notice appears in the International Who's who in Music and Musician's Directory, from the 16th edition onward (1998). He is since July 2007 member of the committee of the Association of Swiss Musicians. His works are played in many countries all around the globe, by numerous ensembles and interpreters, among which a great number of famous interpreters, for instance: the Talich Quartet, the Janacek Quartet, Riccardo Chailly, Tibor Varga, Jesus Lopez-Cobos, Sylvain Cambreling, Francisco Araiza, the Wiener Klangforum, the Zürcher Streichtrio, the New London Chamber Choir. Among his recent compositions: an oratorio for the Swiss National Exposition; “Complainte„ for solo violin, written at the request of Shlomo Mintz to be the set piece of the International Violin Competition of Sion; a choral work, commission awarded through competition by the Foundation for Universal Sacred Music of New York; “Emergences“ for violin and accordion, first performed by Marianne Piketty and Pascal Contet; a double-concerto for Boris Livschitz, violin, and the famous pi'pa player Yang Jing; a quintet for flute and strings for Alexandre Magnin and the Janácek Quartet; a concerto for organ and orchestra, for the inauguration of the new great organ of the Lausanne Cathedral. This concerto shall be played again as German first performance in June 2010 together with the world first performance of a work for choir and orchestra (commissioned by the Gewandhaus) by the Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig, conducted by Riccardo Chailly.
|
