Christophe Schweizer

was born on April 9th, 1968, in Berne, Switzerland. He attended Berne Conservatory (Berne), Mannes College (New York), and Banff School of Fine Arts (Banff, Canada), where he was a long term resident artist in 1993 and went on to become a faculty member at the Jazz Workshop in 1999 and 2000. Among his teachers where Branimir Slokar, Guy-Noel Conus, Conrad Herwig, David Taylor, and Malte Burba. In 1994 and 1995 he attended Gunther Schuller’s Schweitzer Institute of Music at Sandpoint, Idaho, where he studied with Kenny Werner and Joe Lovano.

Schweizer is equally at home in Jazz- / classical - / new-music-related idioms.

As a Jazz musician, Christophe has released six albums of original music under his own name and performed on many as a sideman. Among the musicians who have recorded and / or played concerts / tours with him are Ethan Iverson, Jason Moran, Jacob Sacks, David Kikoski, George Colligan, Sam Barsh / Donny McCaslin, Oscar Noriega, Seamus Blake, David Binney, Ohad Talmor, Rudresh Mahanthappa, Miguel Zenon, Loren Stillman / Alex Sipiagin, Dave Ballou / Hans Glawischnig, Johannes Weidenmüller, Mark Dresser / Dan Weiss, Billy Hart, Tyshawn Sorey, Gene Jackson, Stephane Galland.

Christophe took part in many projects a.o. with Lee Konitz (a.o. Nonet with Ohad Talmor at North Sea Festival, 2004), Steve Swallow (with Yannick Barman, 2003), Fred Hersch (“My Coma Dreams”, Berlin 2013). Other collaborations include Markus Stockhausen-Arkady Shilkloper (Snow Jazz Gastein 2006), Michael Wertmüller-Olaf Rupp (“Speedmaster”).

Christophe was a member of the George Gruntz Concert Band from 1996 to 1998, touring Europe, Russia, North America, and Egypt. He has performed with Maria Schneider Jazz Orchestra, Mingus Big Band, Jazz Big Band Graz, NDR Big Band, WDR Big Band, Guimaraes Festival Big Band, Big Band de Lausanne. As a sideman, he shared the stage with the likes of Phil Woods, Toots Thielemans, Joe Lovano, Kenny Wheeler, Bob Mintzer, Gianluigi Trovesi, Norma Winstone, Jon Hendricks, Kurt Elling, Oscar Brown Jr., Abdullah Ibrahim, Maceo Parker, Take Six, New York Voices, and Paulo Moura. During his New York days, he played with George Schuller’s “Orange then Blue”, Matt Darriau’s “Ballin’ the Jack”, and Joey Sellers’ Jazz Aggregation. He can be heard on pianist Vana Gierig’s Album “A new Day” (Challenge, 2008).

Since 2007, Christophe has collaborated extensively with experimental composer / cellist / performer Brice Catherin, both as a member of the Ensemble “Car du Thon” and as part of the duo “Bristophe” (albums “"Le fils de la prophétesse / Εἰρήνη, Χρόνος" and “ Die ersten zwei Kirchen”, (both on Pan y Rosas, 2014)) and premiering among other works his 10-hour solo performance “Ma pièce avec comme un espoir à la fin” (Geneva, 2010) and the tuba solo “Femme Fontaine”.

As a classical soloist, he has appeared with Gstaad Festival Orchestra playing Daniel Schnyder’s Alphorn Concerto (Singapore 2006). That same year, he performed (also on alphorn) as a member of Arkady Shilkloper’s word project at Dom Musici in Moscow (with a.o. Stoyan Yankoulov, Vladimir Volkov, Mamadou Diabate) In January, 2015, Christophe appeared as a featured soloist in a concert honoring the life and film music of Georgian Composer Giya Kancheli at Tbilisi’s Rustaveli Theater. He was a member of Pro Musica Orchestra Lausanne during the 1991/2 season, with which he performed the alto trombone concerto by Johann Georg Albrechtsberger. From 1988 through 1991, he was the principal trombonist with the Swiss Youth Symphony.

Christophe performs with Berlin based groups “Work in Progress” (New Music) and “Stargaze” (Crossover), collaborating a.o. with pop artists Owen Pallett (PopKultur and Ruhrtriennale Festivals, 2015) and Loney Dear (Kaltern Pop 2015), and played several shows with Matthew Herbert in 2015.

In 2014, Schweizer recorded contemporary composer Stéphane Furic-Leibovici’s extended work “Innerland” together with fellow trombonist Samuel Blaser and vocalist Almut Kühne.

As a composer and performer, he collaborated with conductor Kristjan Järvi’s “Absolute Ensemble” on the music to a new TV series by director Tom Tykwer (2015).

Schweizer’s current Jazz group “Young, Rich & Famous” (Wanja Slavin, as / Oliver Potratz, b / Christian Lillinger, dr) released their debut album “Grand Grace” (Between the Lines) in 2015, which received a honorary mention amongst the best of 2015 in “The New York City Jazz Record”).

In 2014, Schweizer conducted and co-arranged a large ensemble concert featuring Gary Thomas and his music at JazzHausFestival Hamburg.

At Hamburg’s Jazz Open Festival 2015 Christophe Schweizer performed in a trio setting with Richie Beirach on piano and Detlev Beyer on bass.

Christophe serves as music director /arranger for bassist Jürgen Attig’s 18-piece ensemble “African Voicings” featuring several members of the Hamburg production of “The Lion King” (music from Jürgen’s Album “Aventureiro”, Sony 2012).

He collaborates with legendary Jazz drummer Billy Hart on a forthcoming album with the WDR Big Band Cologne featuring Billy’s compositions, which Christophe arranged and conducted.

Since 2013, Schweizer has been a faculty member at the Outreach Festival Academy in Austria. He has taught clinics at HfMT Hamburg, HfMT Hannover, and Indiana University, where he performed (on trombone) the Cello Sonata No.1 in e-minor by Johannes Brahms (1994), and was a faculty member of the Banff Jazz Workshop (Canada) in 1999 and 2000.

Christophe plays the alto-, tenor-, bass-, and contrabass trombone (notably with David Taylor’s “Sounds after the Oil War”) as well as the sackbut, tuba, alphorn, bass trumpet and euphonium. He currently resides in Hamburg, Germany. Show less