Chris Wiesendanger

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Chris Wiesendanger (born October 11, 1965 in Zurich ) is a Swiss jazz musician (piano, keyboards, composition).

Live and act

Wiesendanger began to play and improvise on the piano and harpsichord of his parents at the age of three . He received ten years of classical piano lessons and founded his first professional band at the age of 16. He later worked with Jürg Grau , Koni Weber, Herbie Kopf and Elmar Frey . In the Zurich jazz club Bazillus he played with musicians such as Eddie Harris , Ray Anderson , Lester Bowie , Michael Brecker and Carmen McRae . In addition, there was an increasing number of appearances with their own bands at major international festivals such as the North Sea Jazz Festival , the Montreux Jazz Festival or the JVC Festival New York, and also appearances in Australia and Japan.

Wiesendanger studied composition, theory and piano in New York City at the Juilliard School of Music . During his studies he worked with musicians from the New York jazz scene such as Jim Black , Joshua Redman and Mark Turner . He has been working with two different trios for a long time, on the one hand with Christian Weber and Dieter Ulrich , on the other hand with Dominique Girod (double bass) and Christian Wolfarth (drums). In 2004 he founded his nonet Undersong and wrote compositions for this ensemble; his compositions were also played by the Lucerne Jazz Orchestra . He also headed the Urban Village group . He also plays in a duo with Jürg Wickihalder , belongs to Co Streiff's sextet and accompanied Daniel Pezzotti and Barbara Balzan .

Wiesendanger teaches at the Lucerne School of Music and the Zurich University of the Arts .

Discographic notes

  • Chris Wiesendanger Trio: Live at Moods (Brambus, 1998, with Dominique Girod, Elmar Frey)
  • Organ-X: Time to Talk (Privave Records, with Roberto Bossard , Elmar Frey)
  • Bardo ( Altrisuoni , 2000, with Dominique Girod, Elmar Frey)
  • Urban Village: FreshSound (NewTalent, 2001, with Mark Turner, Ben Street , Nasheet Waits )
  • Wiesendanger / Wickihalter A Feeling for Someone ( Intakt Records 2007)
  • Acoustic Solo Piano Works Volume Two (2019)

Lexigraphic entries

  • Bruno Spoerri (Ed.): Biographical Lexicon of Swiss Jazz . CD supplement to: Spoerri, Bruno (Ed.): Jazz in Switzerland. History and stories . Chronos-Verlag, Zurich 2005, ISBN 3-0340-0739-6 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Wiesendanger, Chris
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss jazz musician and composer
DATE OF BIRTH October 11, 1965
PLACE OF BIRTH Zurich