Stefan Wirth

The composer and pianist Stefan Wirth is one of the most versatile musicians of his generation. He pursues an active concert career performing New Music as a pianist and is a permanent member of the Collegium Novum Zürich as well as Geneva-based Ensemble Contrechamps. Stefan Wirth has worked in various capacities with Heinz Holliger, including as piano soloist with the Orchestra della Svizzera italiana and at the Pentecost Concerts in Ittingen, Switzerland. In 2013 he worked with Pierre Boulez on his Second Piano Sonata. Stefan Wirth is also a member of the Gershwin Piano Quartet, which performs at leading festivals such as the Schleswig Holstein Music Festival, the Festival de Musique de Menton and the Schwetzinger Festspiele. He has also appeared as a guest artist at the Mozarteum Basileiro in São Paulo, the Rheingau Music Festival, the Ruhr Piano Festival and the Gstaad Menuhin Festival.

Stefan Wirth's principal piano teachers include Hadassa Schwimmer at the Zurich Conservatory, Stephen Drury at the New England Conservatory, Boston (USA) und Leonard Hokanson at Indiana University Bloomington (USA). Wirth completed most of his composition studies in the US, where his teachers included Michael Gandolfi and P.Q. Phan. He received the Leonard Bernstein Fellowship, which included summer classes at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute where he worked with George Benjamin. He also studied with Oliver Knussen and Colin Matthews at the Britten–Pears Young Artists Programme in Aldeburgh, England.

Stefan Wirth has received many commissions from among others Collegium Novum Zürich, the Munich Chamber Orchestra, Ensemble Makrokosmos, Ensemble ö!, Camerata Variabile, the Bern Chamber Orchestra, Ensemble Aequatuor and German broadcasters WDR for the Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik and Deutschlandfunk, the Poetische Liedertage in Weimar, the Ruhrtriennale and the Lucerne Festival. His works have been commended three times in the annual "Grammont Sélection" for best Swiss premiere performances. Stefan Wirth has also worked as a pianist, composer and arranger for various stage productions with directors such as Christoph Marthaler and Frank Castorf.