Elsbeth Moser

Born in Bern, the accordionist and teacher ranks among the most distinguished musicians on her instrument. She studied the accordion and piano at the Bern Conservatory and at the Trossingen University of Music. In 1983 she was appointed professor at the University of Music and Drama Hanover. Elsbeth Moser received an honorary professorship from the Tianjin Conservatory of Music in 1998 and is also a visiting professor at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and the University of Pula, Croatia.
Elsbeth Moser has been awarded an array of prizes, including, the first prize in Evian (1969) and Annemasse (1972), the Bernhard Sprengel Prize of Hanover (1979) and the Federal Cross of Merit, presented by the Federal President Roman Herzog for her contribution to the establishment of the accordion as a concert instrument (1997).
Her international breakthrough came with Gidon Kremer’s invitation to the Lockenhaus Festival where she, together with David Geringas and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen (Bremen German Chamber Philharmonic) under the direction of Mario Venzago, performed the western premiere of Sofia Gubaidulina’s Sieben Worte (Seven Words). Elsbeth Moser has also been a guest at festivals such as the Sigulda Festival (Latvia), Les Musiques (Basel), Zermatt Festival (Switzerland), Rheingau Musik Festival, Melos-Ethos Festival and at the ‘2 Days and 2 Nights of New Music’ Festival in Odessa (Ukraine). Elsbeth Moser is co-founder of the quintet ‘that’, for whom Sofia Gubaidulina, Vinko Globokar and Nikolaus A. Huber, amongst others, have composed commissioned pieces. Concert tours have taken this accordionist all over the world. On behalf of the Goethe Institute she travelled, with her long-standing partner Nicolas Altstaedt, from Baghdad to Cairo.
Her book, ‘Das Knopfakkordeon C-Griff, ein systematischer Weg’ (The Button Accordion C-System: a systematic method), was published by Sikorski Music Publishers.