Sylvie Courvoisier

Composer/pianist, Sylvie Courvoisier was born and raised in Lausanne, Switzerland. She started to play piano at age of six initiated by her father, an amateur jazz pianist. She moved to Brooklyn, New York in 1998, where she currently resides.

She has played and recorded with John Zorn, Ikue Mori, Tim Berne, Joey Baron, Mark Feldman, Tony Oxley, Yusef Lateef, Dave Douglas, Joëlle Léandre, Herb Robertson, Butch Morris, Tom Rainey, Mark Dresser, Ellery Eskelin, Lotte Anker, Fred Frith, Michel Godard, Mark Nauseef among others.

She has been commissioned to write music for concerts, radio, dance and theater. Her works include:” Concerto for electric guitar and chamber orchestra” ; “Balbutiements” for vocal quartet and soprano ;”Ocre de Barbarie”, a musical performance for metronomes, automatons, barrel organ, piano, tuba, saxophone, violin and percussion.

Commissions include the Vidy Theater of Lausanne, Pro Helvetia and Germany's Donaueschingen Musiktage Festival.

Her debut recording “Sauvagerie Courtoise” on Unit Records was released in 1994. Her second recording ''Ocre” on Enja Records (Music for barrel organ, piano, tuba, bass and percussion ) led to appearances on concert stages all over Europe. In the following years, Courvoisier released 6 CDs as a leader, and 10 CDs as a Co-leader, and more than 20recordings as a side person or as a guest.

Tags

Sylvie Courvoisier piano

Radio

Sylvie Courvoisier, Christian Lillinger, OM and More

Album Review

Free Hoops by Troy Dostert
Time Gone Out by Troy Dostert

Radio

New Sounds Including The Fictive Five, The Comet is Coming and Sylvie...

Live Review

Trondheim Jazzfest 2019: Part 2-2

Album Review

D'Agala by Hrayr Attarian
D'Agala by John Sharpe
D'Agala by Mark Corroto
D'Agala by Troy Dostert
Double Windsor by Vincenzo Roggero

”...That her music is as aesthetically beautiful as it is strange and mysterious is only further testament to her prowess as a composer. That this trio plays her music as if it has been creating it from the air is nothing short of remarkable. Abaton is Courvoisier's crowning achievement thus far, and this group points her firmly forward in a direction where everything is still possible, demonstrating that there is something new under the sun in classical music and improvisation. Perhaps Abaton is the great moment of 2003 for new classical music.” —Thom Jurek, All Music Guide

“Courvoisier's playing is jaw-dropping at times, and there's an extended passage that features her working both inside and on the keyboard of the piano interacting with Rainey and the others in subtle combinations, and working up to a terrifying free jazz piano freakout that could make a person faint!” —Michael Anton Parker, 2005

“This highly original and new music has it all: razor-sharp edges, sounds of a thousand dancing needles, thundering power arising from deeply yawning chasms, mystic fluorescence throughout, calmness combined with a mysterious kind of moving.” —Henning Bolte, 5/2007

“Dans un autre pays que la Suisse, elle serait adulée comme une des plus importantes plumes musicales de son temps