Andreas Vollenweider

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Andreas Vollenweider, 2004

Andreas Vollenweider (born October 4, 1953 in Zurich ) is a Swiss musician , composer , producer and arranger.

music

His music was given categories such as World Music , Jazz , New Age or Neoclassical ; two of his albums were simultaneously number 1 on the Billboard charts for eleven weeks in the categories of classical, jazz, pop and crossover . His music is described as very colorful, dynamic and characterized by a variety of exotic timbres. In addition to the harp, he also plays the piano, organ, guitar, a variety of different wind instruments and many exotic instruments. Occasionally he also uses his voice or that of guest singers.

Some of his musical encounters were with Bobby McFerrin , Carly Simon , Djivan Gasparyan , Luciano Pavarotti , Ladysmith Black Mambazo , Carlos Núñez , Ray Anderson , Zucchero , Hans Zimmer , Angelo Branduardi , Milton Nascimento , Eliza Gilkyson and Söhne Mannheims .

Vollenweider has toured numerous tours and gave open-air concerts in Europe, the USA, Africa, Asia and Latin America .

Life

Andreas Vollenweider grew up in an artistically diverse and inspiring environment; his father Hans Vollenweider was an organist . During the holidays, the father and his family always went to the churches and their organs in one place. As an autodidact , he first became a multi-instrumentalist in search of “his” instrument.

In 1975 he discovered the harp for himself, developed his own playing technique and, with the help of a friend, modified the instrument according to his needs: the electro-acoustic harp was born. Vollenweider initially composed for film, theater and television productions. In the following years he worked with René Bardet and Orlando Valentini in the ensemble poetry and music . This resulted in settings of poems by Heinrich Heine and François Villons .

In 1979 he released his first album Eine Art Suite in XIII parts in Switzerland . It is considered to be the «cradle of the Vollenweider sound». In 1981 Andreas Vollenweider & Friends gave their first concert at the Montreux Jazz Festival . The following fall, the album Behind the Gardens - Behind the Wall - Under the Tree was released .

He underlined his commitment to the environmental protection and peace movement in 1983 with his single Pace Verde and the music video of the same name. In Amsterdam he received the Edison Award . In 1984 he made it into the US charts with his fourth album, White Winds , in three different categories at the same time: pop , classical and jazz . His first USA tour was a great success. Concerts and concerts followed. a. 1985 at New York's Carnegie Hall and Radio City Music Hall , Washington's Kennedy Center and the Universal Amphitheater in Los Angeles . The subsequent album Down to the Moon was awarded a Grammy in 1987 . Tours in Canada , the USA , 13 European countries, Japan and Australia followed .

In 1988/89 the album Dancing with the Lion was created . For the first time, Vollenweider opened his project to numerous guest musicians from a wide variety of musical fields. Under his own direction , he produced two unusual, award-winning music videos with Dancing with the Lion and Pearls & tears , for which he also drew for content, choreography and set. In 1990 the double album Trilogy was released , an anthology of the first three albums Behind the Gardens , Caverna Magica and White Winds , which also contained previously internationally unreleased material. In 1991 the album Book of Roses followed , which for the first time contained new, symphonic elements.

On the Red Square in Moscow , he gave in 1992 a charity - open-air concert for the Children of Chernobyl . In Monaco he received the World Music Award .

Vollenweider produced an album with sung songs for the first time in 1993/94 with Eolian Minstrel . Contributors are the two American singers Carly Simon and Eliza Gilkyson . Worldwide tours followed. 1994–1996 Vollenweider a. a. in Modena ( Italy ) duets with Luciano Pavarotti and rock singer Bryan Adams .

Vollenweider likes to perform in unusual places. He gave concerts in a number of palaces and castles, among others. a. in Poland; with the Italian rock musician Zucchero he performed in Bruneck ( South Tyrol ) at an open-air concert, concerts took place in a volcanic cave at the “Festival Musica Visual” on Lanzarote . In 1997 he took part in the recordings of Kryptos , music for a large symphonic orchestra and guest virtuosos. Excerpts from Kryptos were with the RAI - Orchestra at the Sanremo Music Festival listed in Italy. In 1998 the symphonic live project Wolkenstein was carried out.

In 1999 Vollenweider devoted himself more to free improvisation with the album Cosmopoly . He invited his friends to the gathering of world music: the American vocal acrobat Bobby McFerrin , the Brazilian poet and singer Milton Nascimento , the South African ethnic -Jazzpianisten Abdullah Ibrahim , the Armenian duduk -Legende Dschiwan Gasparjan and bagpipes - and Whistle -Virtuosen Carlos Nuñez from the Spanish Galicia , the songwriter Carly Simon and the North American Blues - trombone -Master Ray Anderson .

In 2000 Vollenweider traveled through Europe with the “Cosmopoly” project in a composition that changed almost every day. Vollenweider followed the album's open concept live. In New York, the group played two concerts on the occasion of the album's release. This time, too, there was a one-off cast with Carly Simon, Carlos Nuñez, Mindy Jostyn , Dschiwan Gasparjan, Xiao Jing Wang and Walter Keizer . Concerts in Brazil followed with Milton Nascimento and the composer and pianist Wagner Tiso . The song Cor do Amor , which Vollenweider wrote with Milton Nascimento, was nominated for the first Latin Grammy .

In 2001 he gave a concert in Bali ( Indonesia ) as part of the international conference "Song Of Convergence" with Balinese musicians. There he began writing the symphonic novella Tales of Kira Kutan , which premiered on June 3rd at the Warsaw Film Music Festival. Participating: the “Sinfonia Varsovia” orchestra ( Yehudi Menuhin ) under the direction of co-orchestrator and conductor André Bellmont . Another world premiere took place in September in the Olympic Stadium in Athens as part of the international Socrates year: the music theater "SOCRATES - dawn of civilization", with the American actor Rod Steiger as Socrates . Vollenweider's large-scale and dramatic soundtrack is a combination of “sound design”, choirs and percussion. He received a "carte blanche" at the AVO Festival in Basel , Switzerland. His guests were Abdullah Ibrahim and David Lindley .

In 2002 Andreas Vollenweider put together a new band: the mini orchestra with Walter Keizer and the two musicians Daniel Küffer ( saxophone ) and Andi Pupato ( percussion ). Andreas Vollenweider & Friends played at various festivals and theaters in Europe, for example at the Leverkusen Jazz Days . At the Swiss national exhibition Expo.02 they made music on the stage construction of the architect Jean Nouvel on the banks of the Murten lake . In July of that year Vollenweider invited the Sinfonia Varsovia to the “ Live at Sunset ” festival in Zurich and received a standing ovation for his symphonic works Wolkenstein and Tales of Kira Kutan . This was followed by an appearance at the Big Chill Festival in London .

Vollenweider was a guest soloist at the birthday concert of the jazz composer George Gruntz in Zug (Switzerland). He also worked on the American film Tears of the Sun with the German film composer Hans Zimmer . In 2003 he continued working with Zimmer. He played at concerts in Johannesburg and in Cape Town at the North Sea Jazz Cape Town as a guest musician of the South African Pops Mohamed . In 2004 the CD production "Vox" was released by Universal Music in Europe. Andreas Vollenweider & Friends played two concerts in Bloemfontein in South Africa in October . One of them took place at the “MACUFE Festival” in front of 40,000 visitors. In autumn the band went on tour through Slovenia , Serbia , Italy, Germany and Poland . The tour ended with two concerts in Zurich, one of which was recorded on Swiss television and broadcast several times.

In 2005 Vollenweider was the keynote speaker at the second World Spirit Forum (WSF) in Switzerland, which sees itself as the antithesis of the annual World Economic Forum (WEF). In August, Andreas Vollenweider musically framed the interreligious event with the Dalai Lama on the Münsterplatz in Zurich . In the USA and Canada, the entire back catalog, revised by the artist, was re-released with video / DVD and the album Vox . The "Best of" Magic Harp climbed to number four on the Billboard charts in the New Age category in the first week after publication .

In 2006 Andreas Vollenweider & Friends toured in Germany, Spain and Switzerland. In April they played in the USA. A four-hour DVD with concert excerpts from the last 25 years was released in the USA in spring and in Europe in autumn under the title The Magical Journeys of Andreas Vollenweider . In November 2006, the Christmas album Midnight Clear , on which Carly Simon participated, came out. Vollenweider received his third Grammy nomination in 2007 for the soundtrack to the DVD The Magical Journeys of Andreas Vollenweider . There were concerts in Europe and the USA. In September the double CD Andreas Vollenweider & Friends - 25 years live (1982–2007) was released . In 2008 Vollenweider was in the studio for his latest work, which was released in early 2009 under the name Air . In August Vollenweider recorded pieces for the new album with Xavier Naidoo in Vollenweider's studio in Switzerland.

In November 2009 Vollenweider performed alongside other artists in a large gala concert in Yerevan, Armenia, on the 80th birthday of the Duduk musician Dschiwan Gasparjan . He toured Europe with the program »AIR-Musik«, accompanied by the »Fresh Air Orchestra«. In August he performed at the Joy of Jazz Festival in Johannesburg, South Africa.

In 2010 Vollenweider mainly gave concerts in Europe. A special concert project was “The Watercourse Way” in the Shanghai Center in Shanghai, China, as part of the EXPO 2010. In August, the AVAF large formation, the “Dancing with the Lion Orchestra”, played the “dream concert” in a circus tent in Switzerland Laugh at Lake Zurich. Friends of Vollenweider's music traveled from all over the world for a kind of “family reunion”. In October another trip to South Africa took place with concerts at the MACUFE Festival in Bloemfontein and in the sold out arena of Carnival City, Johannesburg, as well as a concert for the prisoners of Pollsmore Prison in Cape Town, one of the largest high-security prisons in the world.

In July 2011 the anniversary concert “30 Years Andreas Vollenweider & Friends” took place as part of the Montreux Jazz Festival. In December of the same year, Swiss television broadcast the documentary Andreas Vollenweider - The Gentle Resistance , including scenes from a performance in South Africa. In 2012, he received the Swiss Music Award in the Outstanding Achievement category .

Publications

Studio albums

  • 1976 - Vollenweider, Bardet, Valentini (poetry and music): Heinrich Heine - a new song
  • 1976 - Vollenweider, Bardet, Valentini (poetry and music): François Villon
  • 1977 - Vollenweider, Bardet, Valentini (poetry and music): Heinrich Heine - I can no longer close my eyes
  • 1979 - An Art Suite in XIII parts (only published in Switzerland)
  • 1981 - Behind the Gardens - Behind the Wall - Under the Tree (DE # 32, US # 121) (DE: goldgold)
  • 1983 - Caverna Magica (DE # 11, AT # 5, US # 149) (DE:goldgold)
  • 1984 - White Winds (Seeker's Journey) (DE # 19, AT # 15, CH # 5, SE # 27, US # 76)
  • 1986 - Down to the Moon (DE # 20, A # 13, CH # 3, SE # 34, US # 60)
  • 1989 - Dancing with the Lion (DE # 26, CH # 2, SE # 43, US # 52) (CH:goldgold)
  • 1990 - Traumgarten (together with father Hans Vollenweider) (CH # 16)
  • 1991 - Book of Roses (DE # 73, CH # 21, USA # 117)
  • 1993 - Eolian Minstrel (DE # 93, CH # 15)
  • 1997 - Kryptos (DE # 82, CH # 19, NL # 97)
  • 1999 - Cosmopoly (CH # 31)
  • 2004 - Vox (CH # 63)
  • 2006 - Midnight Clear , u. a. with Carly Simon (music in the spirit of peace, hope, love and compassion) (CH # 50)
  • 2009 - AIR (CH # 25)

Live albums

  • 1994 - Andreas Vollenweider and Friends: Live 1982–1994
  • 2007 - Andreas Vollenweider and Friends: 25 years live, 1982–2007

Best-ofs, compilations, DVDs

  • 1990 - Trilogy (contains the complete albums Behind the Garden , Caverna Magica and White Winds as well as parts of "Eine Art Suite" and the single "Pace Verde")
  • 2000 - The Essential (CH # 79)
  • 2000 - Moon Dance - Best (1981-96, Label: Zounds , all tracks digitally remastered, 24 carat gold CD)
  • 2005 - Magic Harp (Best Of, USA / Canada only)
  • 2005 - The Storyteller (Best Of, contains a DVD with concert recordings, released internationally, except USA / Canada)
  • 2006 - The Magical Journeys Of Andreas Vollenweider Double DVD with recordings from 25 years (history, live concerts, interviews, documentaries, video clips ...)

literature

Movie

  • Andreas Vollenweider. The gentle resistance. Documentary, Switzerland, 2011, 56:25 min., Script and director: Cristina Karrer, production: SRF , series: Stars, first broadcast: December 25, 2011 on SF 1 , synopsis by 3sat , online video for Swiss viewers.

Web links

Commons : Andreas Vollenweider  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Andreas Vollenweider - The gentle resistance. (No longer available online.) SRF , 2011, archived from the original on April 25, 2013 ; accessed on May 31, 2018 (information about a documentary film, director: Cristina Karrer).
  2. ^ Andreas Vollenweider. In: blueguitar.homepage.t-online.de. May 12, 2014, accessed August 24, 2015 .
  3. ↑ Awards: DE CH
  4. ^ Carly Simon's website, accessed May 31, 2018.
personal data
SURNAME Vollenweider, Andreas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss musician and composer
DATE OF BIRTH 4th October 1953
PLACE OF BIRTH Zurich