Chris Wiesendanger (born 11 October 1965) is a Swiss jazz pianist.

Biography

Wiesendanger took

classical piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

lessons for ten years, when he was a child. He founded his own first professional band at the age of 16. Later, he worked with Jürg Grau, Koni Weber, Herbie Kopf and Elmar Frey. In ''Jazzclub Bazillus'' in Zürich, he played with musicians like

Eddie Harris Eddie Harris (October 20, 1934 – November 5, 1996) was an American jazz musician, best known for playing tenor saxophone and for introducing the electrically amplified saxophone. He was also fluent on the electric piano and organ. His best-k ...

, Ray Anderson,

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. Besides, his performances with his own band increased in international festivals such as

North Sea Jazz Festival The North Sea Jazz Festival is an annual festival held each second weekend of July in the Netherlands at the Ahoy venue. It used to be in The Hague but since 2006 it has been held in Rotterdam. This is because the Statenhal where the festival w ...

Montreux Jazz Festival The Montreux Jazz Festival (formerly Festival de Jazz Montreux and Festival International de Jazz Montreux) is a music festival in Switzerland, held annually in early July in Montreux on the Lake Geneva shoreline. It is the second-largest annual ...

and ''JVC Festival New York''. He performed also in Australia and Japan. Wiesendanger studied composition, theory and piano in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

at the

Juilliard School The Juilliard School ( ) is a private performing arts conservatory in New York City. Established in 1905, the school trains about 850 undergraduate and graduate students in dance, drama, and music. It is widely regarded as one of the most el ...

. During the education, he worked with musicians in the New York Jazz scene such as

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or Mark Turner. He has worked with two different trios for a long time; the trio with Christian Weber and

Dieter Ulrich Dieter Ulrich (12 October 1958 in Zurich) is a Swiss jazz and free improvisation musician (percussion, flugelhorn) and art historian. Life and works Ulrich had piano lessons from Irma Schaichet from 1965 to 1980. He learned also playing percuss ...

and also the trio with Dominique Girod (

double bass The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or #Terminology, by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow (music), bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox addit ...

) and

Christian Wolfarth Christian Wolfarth (1960 in Zurich) is a Swiss people, Swiss jazz percussion player. Biography Wolfarth moved to Bern in 1981, where he studied under Billy Lewis Brooks at Swiss Jazz School from 1982 to 1986. Then, he studied under Pierre Favre ...

(

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

). IN 2004, he founded his nonet ''Undersong'' and composed for this

ensemble Ensemble may refer to: Art * Architectural ensemble * ''Ensemble'' (album), Kendji Girac 2015 album * Ensemble (band), a project of Olivier Alary * Ensemble cast (drama, comedy) * Ensemble (musical theatre), also known as the chorus * ''En ...

. His compositions were played also by Lucerne Jazz Orchestra. Besides, he was also the leader of the group Urban Village. He plays also in a duet with Jürg Wickihalder and is a member of

Co Streiff Co Streiff (Cornelia Streiff) (5 April 1959 in Zurich) is a Swiss jazz musician who combines the elements of free jazz with the music of Africa. She is a saxophonist and flutist. She was educated at a conservatory with the transverse flute as ...

sextet A sextet (or hexad) is a formation containing exactly six members. The former term is commonly associated with vocal ensembles (e.g. The King's Singers, Affabre Concinui) or musical instrument groups, but can be applied to any situation where six ...

. Wiesendanger teaches at the

Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (german: Hochschule Luzern) (HSLU) is one of seven regional, public-funded universities of applied sciences founded in 1997 in its current form. The University was called University of Applied Scienc ...

and

Zurich University of the Arts Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK, german: Zürcher Hochschule der Künste) has approximately 2,500 students, which makes it the largest arts university in Switzerland. The university was established in 2007, following the merger between Zurich' ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wiesendanger, Chris 1965 births Living people Musicians from Zürich Swiss jazz pianists Swiss keyboardists Swiss jazz composers 21st-century pianists