Arts Global

Pianist Louis Schwizgebel’s 2011-2012 season includes appearances at the Verbier, St. Prex Classics, Menuhin, and Bergen festivals; two encore performances in the Young Concert Artists Series at Merkin Hall in New York and the Kennedy Center in Washington DC; and at the YCA Tokyo and Beijing festivals. Mr Schwizgebel also performs at London’s Wigmore Hall in a duo with cellist Lionel Cottet.

Career highlights include a tour with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Fabio Luisi where he performed at Musikverein Vienna, Victoria Hall Geneva, Kultur Casino Berne, Tonhalle Zurich and KKL Lucerne as well as his debuts at Wigmore Hall, at the Progetto Martha Argerich in Lugano and with the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Carl Davis.

Mr Schwizgebel has worked with orchestras including Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, Zurich Chamber Orchestra, Musikkollegium Winterthur, Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana, Basel Symphony Orchestra and Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra and conductors Marek Janowski, Douglas Boyd, Christof Escher, Hervé Klopfenstein, Jean-Bernard Pommier, Thierry Fischer, Louis Langrée among others. Festival appearances include performances at Festival Septembre Musical de Montreux-Vevey, Les Jardins Musicaux, Ohrid Summer Festival, Usedomer Festival and Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. In solo recitals he was heard at Gianadda Foundation in Martigny, at the Vancouver Recital Society in Canada and in the Swiss Pavilion at the Expo in Shanghai.

In 2008, Mr Schwizgebel was honored with the Swiss Ambassador’s Award Concerts, organized by the Embassy of Switzerland in collaboration with the Swiss Cultural Fund in Britain. First Prize Winner in the 2007 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, Mr. Schwizgebel was presented in his New York debut at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall, sponsored by the Peter Marino Debut Prize, and his Washington, DC debut at the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater. At the Auditions, he was also awarded numerous performance prizes. Mr. Schwizgebel won First Prize in the 2006 Young Concert Artists European Auditions in Leipzig’s Hochschule für Musik Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy.

In 2005 Mr. Schwizgebel was the top prize-winner in the Geneva International Piano Competition, where he was also awarded the Audience Prize and the "Coup de Coeur Breguet" Prize, which sponsored the recording of his first disc.

Mr Schwizgebel gave his first performances at the age of nine. At 12, he represented Switzerland in the 9th Steinway Festival in Hamburg and at 15 won First Prize, the Prize for the Best Interpretation of a Swiss work, and the Paderewski Prize in the Swiss Youth Music Competition. Born in 1987 in Geneva, Mr Schwizgebel began his piano studies at the age of six with Franz Josefovski. Three years later, he entered the Lausanne Conservatory, as a student of Brigitte Meyer, and earned a "Soloist's Diploma" at the age of 15. Following, he worked with Pascal Devoyon at the Universität der Künst in Berlin and currently lives in New York working with Emanuel Ax (YCA Alumnus) at the Juilliard School. His mother, who is Chinese, and his father, who is Swiss, are both visual artists.

For further information, please visit Mr Schwizgebel's personal website: www.louisschwizgebelwang.com.