Oliver Schnyder


Oliver Schnyder is a Swiss classical pianist.

Early life and education

Oliver Schnyder was born on 3 October 1973 in Brugg, Switzerland. He studied with Emmy Henz-Diémand, then studied in the master class of Homero Francesch at the Zurich University of the Arts, taking his soloist diploma in 1998. He thereafter studied briefly with Ruth Laredo at the Manhattan School of Music in New York and from 1998 to 2001 in the class of Leon Fleisher in Baltimore.

Career

Since his debut recital in the year 2000 at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. and his solo debut in 2002 with Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich conducted by David Zinman on the occasion of the Orpheum Music Festival for the Advancement of Young Soloists in Zürich, Oliver Schnyder has embarked on a global concert career. As a soloist, recitalist and chamber musician he has performed across all of Europe, in North and South America and the Far East, playing in Munich, Osaka, Tokyo, Hong Kong, London, New York, Frankfurt am Main, Milan, Lucerne, Moscow, Beijing, Hamburg, Brussels, Manchester, Saint Petersburg, Dortmund, Geneva, Taipei, Cologne, Seoul, Rockville, Maryland, Copenhagen, London, Baltimore and Zürich.
Schnyder has also performed at numerous international festivals, such as at the Ruhr Piano Festival, the Schwetzingen Festival, the Menuhin Festival Gstaad, the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival, the Boswil Music Summer, the Ernen Music Village, the Lugano Festival, the Lucerne Festival, the Frankfurt Musikfest, the Schubertiade Schwarzenberg and Hohenems, the Richard Strauss Festival Garmisch-Partenkirchen and the Bruckner Festival Linz.
Oliver Schnyder has performed as a soloist with many renowned orchestras, such as the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Academy of Saint Martin in the Fields, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne, the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, the Zurich Chamber Orchestra and the Bern Symphony Orchestra, the Zürich Tonhalle Orchestra, the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, the Basel Symphony Orchestra, the Korean Symphony Orchestra, the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra, the Wurttemberg Philhamonia Reutlingen, the South-west German Chamber Orchestra Pforzheim, the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra, the Hong Kong Sinfonietta, the Oslo Camerata, the Israel Sinfonietta and the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra.
Further renowned conductors with whom Schnyder has performed include Howard Griffiths, Muhai Tang, Sir Roger Norrington, Michail Jurowski, Howard Arman, James Gaffigan and Ivor Bolton.
Oliver Schnyder is the pianist of the Oliver Schnyder Trio, which he founded in 2012 together with violinist Andreas Janke and cellist Benjamin Nyffenegger. The Trio gave its debut in the Zürich Tonhalle on 4 February 2012 with Schubert's Piano Trio No. 2 in E-flat major. Other chamber music partners include Julia Fischer, Nils Mönkemeyer, Sol Gabetta, Heinz Holliger, Antje Weithaas, Daniel Behle, Benjamin Appl, Regula Mühlemann, Lia Pale, Rachel Harnisch, Veronika Eberle, Marc Bouchkov, Vilde Frang, Alexander Sitkovetsky, Lars Anders Tomter, Jens Peter Maintz, Wolfram Christ, Christian Poltéra, Alina Pogostkina, Henning Kraggerud, Martin Grubinger, the Endellion String Quartet, the Carmina Quartet, the Gringolts Quartet and many more.
Oliver Schnyder's concerts have been broadcast by national public radio stations all over Europe and in the United States.

Cultural involvement

Oliver Schnyder is the founder and artistic director of Piano District, which brings top-class pianists to the "Druckerei" in his hometown Baden. Since 2013, pianists such as Radu Lupu, Emanuel Ax, Mikhail Pletnev, Fazıl Say, Kit Armstrong, Yulianna Avdeeva, Angela Hewitt, Stephen Kovacevich, Christian Zacharias, Jan Lisiecki, Dmitry Masleev, Philippe Entremont, Paul Badura-Skoda, Janina Fialkowska and Richard Goode have performed on the stage of Piano District, as well as piano duos such as Tal & Groethuysen, and Anderson & Roe.
Schnyder has been guest artistic director of the Ittingen Whitsun Concerts 2016, and 2018/2019 artistic director of the Davos Festival – Young Artists in Concert. In 2018, Oliver Schnyder and his wife Fränzi Frick have been appointed artistic directors of the festival Lenzburgiade Classic & Folk International.

Scholarships, prizes and awards

  • "Supersonic Award" of the Luxembourgish Magazine Pizzicato, 2015, 2011 and 2010
  • "M&T Meilenstein" of the Swiss Magazine Musik & Theater, 2014
  • Career grant of the Aargau Kuratorium for artistic achievements, 2012, 2007
  • Nomination for ICMA, 2012
  • "Choc de Classica" of the French Magazine Classica, 2012
  • "Rose of the Week" of the Munich newspaper tz for an outstanding artistic performance, 2009
  • Orpheum Foundation for the Advancement of Young Soloists, Zürich, 2002
  • Milholland Award for Piano of the Peabody Conservatory, Baltimore, 2001
  • Finalist International Robert Schumann Competition for Piano and Singing, Zwickau, 2000
  • First Prize at the Pembaur Competition, Bern, 1999
  • Rahn Music Award, Zürich, 1998
  • Second Prize Lions International Piano Competition, as the official representative of Switzerland at the European Finals in Budapest, 1998
  • Scholarship of the Swiss-American Cultural Exchange Council, Washington, D.C., 1998
  • Duttweiler Hug Prize, Zürich, 1996
  • Landolt Prize, Zürich, 1996
  • Soloist Prize of the Jmanuel & Evamaria Schenk Foundation, Zofingen, 1996
  • Studies Prize of the Migros-Genossenschafts-Bund and the Ernst Göhner Foundation, 1995
  • Soloist Prize of the Swiss Council for Music, Boswil, 1991
Recordings of Oliver Schnyder have been awarded in numerous cases i.e. by the Opernwelt, by the Rondo Magazine, by the Aargauer Zeitung, by NDR Kultur, by the Kulturspiegel, of the Fono Forum, of ClassicFM and of rbb Kulturradio.

Discography