A life dedicated to music, a performer constantly striving to refine her interpretative skills, a tireless curiosity leading to the expansion of an already vast knowledge of the repertoire have been the driving force guiding Edith Fischer on an original career path.

At the same time, her tireless dedication to teaching her musical principles to a myriad of young musicians has been a major achievement.

Having created both a major festival and a music school during her extended stay in Switzerland, this exceptional artist who has never sought fame has given more than 1,000 concerts, performing the complete series of Beethoven piano sonatas in London, Paris, Barcelona, Santiago de Chile as well as in various cities in Switzerland. She has also appeared numerous times as a soloist with orchestra, and in chamber music concerts.

Edith Fischer is one of the few disciples of the celebrated pianist, Claudio Arrau, to get a mention in Horowitz’ celebrated book, Conversations with Arrau. Her constant aim has been to develop this extraordinary pianistic tradition, as well as passing it on. From a young age and until the master s death, she had the privilege and the joy of being in close personal contact with this great artist.

As quoted in the Swiss newspaper, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Edith Fischer, a true disciple of Claudio Arrau, seems to embody the exceptional and fortunate example of the student whose talent and character mirror that of the teacher to the extent that it borders on the marvellous.

At present, Edith Fischer is based in Chile, from where she leads a busy international schedule.

Pascal Rogé exemplifies the finest in French pianism. Born in Paris, he was a student of the Paris Conservatory and was also mentored by Julius Katchen and the great Nadia Boulanger. Winner of Georges Enesco piano competition and 1st prize of Marguerite Long Piano competition, he became an exclusive Decca recording artist at the age of seventeen. His playing of Poulenc, Satie, Fauré, Saint-Saëns and especially Ravel and Debussy is characterized by its elegance, beauty and stylistically perfect phrasing.

Pascal Rogé has performed in almost every major concert hall in the world and with every major orchestra across the globe and has collaborated with the most distinguished conductors in history, including Lorin Maazel, Michael Tilson Thomas, Mariss Jansons, Charles Dutoit, Kurt Masur, Edo de Waart, Alan Gilbert, David Zinman, Marek Janowski, Sir Andrew Davis, Raymond Leppard and others.

One of the world’s most distinguished recording artists, Pascal Rogé has won many prestigious awards, including two Gramophone Awards, a Grand Prix du Disque and an Edison Award for his interpretations of the Ravel and Saint- Saens concerti along with the complete piano works of Ravel, Poulenc Debussy and Satie.

Each season, he devotes more than fifty concerts to French music in Europe (Germany, Austria, Switzerland, England, Finland) as well as in the United States, New Zealand or Asia, and particularly in Japan where he teaches and plays regularly.

Pascal Rogé’s interest in the younger generation of up-and-coming artists rendered him to be a chairman of the previous Geneva Piano competition. He moreover enjoys dedicating his time to teaching and is a current adjunct professor at the Trinity Laban College of Music and Royal Academy of Music in London. He also gives regular masterclasses in France, Japan, United States and United Kingdom.

Prize-winner of international competitions (1st Priez of the Concours International d’Epinal in 1981 and 2^nd Prize of the Cleveland Piano competition in 1983) she has performed worldwide as a soloist, with several orchestras and as a chamber musician.

Mayumi Kameda has also made several recordings, especially as part of the piano duet with Jean-Jacques Ballet. She taught for years at the Conservatoire de Musique de Genève, and also teaches piano pedagogy at the Haute Ecole de Musique de Genève.

Facundo Agudin is a Swiss Conductor of Argentinian descent who was born in Buenos Aires. After a university degree from the “Universidad Católica Argentina” in the conducting classes of Néstor Andrenacci and Guillermo Scarabino, he completed his training by studying Medieval music in Bologna with Pedro Memelsdorff and historical composition at the “Schola Cantorum Basiliensis” in Basel.

In 2004 he created “Musique des Lumières”, of which he has since been its musical and artistic director. He is co-founder of the “Neue Opernprojekte Basel” and of the “Stand’Eté” Festival.

He has also conducted the Basel Symphonic Orchestra, the Bienne Symphonic Orchestra, the CRT Foundation Orchestra in Turin, the “Sinfonica Aosta”, the “Orchestra Classica Italiana”, the Saint Petersburg Symphonic Orchestra, the Kislovodsk Philarmonic, the “Teatro Colón” Philarmonic Orchestra, the Argentinian National Symphonic Orchestra, the “Teatro Argentino de La Plata” Orchestra, the Paraguay National Symphonic Orchestra and the Regional “Cannes Provence Alpes Côte d’Azur” Orchestra.

Since 2014 he has been a member of the guest conductors at the “Théâtre Mariinsky”, where he made his début with Faust. He also reinforced his partnership with the Argentina National Symphonic Orchestra. In parallel he has led numerous concerts with “Musique des Lumières”, as well as a new production of “La Traviata” at the “Stand’Eté” Festival. He was invited to conduct the “War Requiem” for the close of the first season of the new Buenos Aires Auditorium, the ‘Centro Cultural Kirchner’.

Facundo Agudin has conducted world premieres of works by Christian Favre, Jaqueline Fontyn, Dominique Gesseney, Christian Giger, Elmar Lampson, Andreas Pflüger, David Sonton, Julio Viera, Pablo Ortiz, Marcelo Nisinman. He has also worked closely with Universal Music and has been appointed by the Ricordi publishers in Munich to take part in the promotion of Simon Mayr’s operatic works.

His discography with the « Musique des Lumières » orchestra includes the “Requiem” by Christian Favre (Doron Music), the « Pilgrimage of the Rose“ by Schumann (Doron Music), Demetrio de Mayr (DRS2/Oehms Classics), “Nuevo Tango Nuevo” (Oehms Classics), ”Cantique” (works by Max Reger, Ernest Bloch and Andreas Pflüger), the first volume of a series under the Neos Music label in a co-production with SRF 2 Kultur.

Facundo Agudin is a member of the « Forum des 100 », one hundred celebrities that make up French-speaking Switzerland. He is a Jury member of the Lausanne Competition and of the Argentinian National Symphonic Orchestra.

Photo © Aline Fournier

Christian Favre, born on 23rd January 1955 in Lausanne, is a Swiss soloist and chamber music pianist, composer and professor.

He studied at his hometown « Conservatoire » with Francesco Zaza. In 1975 he won the First Virtuoso Prize for piano with congratulations by the Jury headed by Louis Hiltbrand. He progressed further with Karl Engel at the Hanover “Musikhochschule”, where he obtained a soloist diploma in 1978.

He also benefited from the teachings by Stefan Askenase in Bonn, by Guido Agosti in Sienna and by Nikita Magaloff in Montreux.

Christian Favre performs in recitals, in chamber music and with orchestra. He has played under such conductors as Armin Jordan, Jesús López Cobos, Franz Welser-Möst, Marius Constant, Marcello Viotti, Tibor Varga, Christian Zacharias, etc. As he is particularly keen to establish close interactions between music, poetry and literature, Christian Favre partnered with actors such as Richard Vachoux, Corine Coderey, Nicolas Rinuy, Anna Pieri, for various poetical recitals based on : Franz Liszt/Victor Hugo, Robert Schumann/E. T. A. Hoffmann, Maurice Ravel/Aloysius Bertrand, Frédéric Chopin/George Sand. Since the beginning of his career he has given concerts in a very large number of European cities. Fascinated by chamber music, he has in particular performed with violinists Jean Jaquerod, Pierre Amoyal, Tedi Papavrami, Gilles Colliard, Gyula Stuller, Raphaël Oleg, Denitsa Kazakova and Frédéric Angleraux, violist Christoph Schiller, cellists Martina Schucan, François Guye, Wen-Sinn Yang, Thomas Demenga and Mark Drobinsky, pianists Martha Argerich, Alexandre Rabinovitch, Brigitte Meyer, Jean-François Antonioli, Paul Coker and Marc Pantillon, the Munich String Trio, the Raymond Quartet, the Amati Quartet, the Sine Nomine Quartet, as well as the Schumann Quartet, of which he is the standing pianist. Christian Favre has produced a considerable discography and has taken part in numerous radio and television programs.

He has composed a Requiem for choir, soloists and orchestra that was first performed in March 2008 in Buenos Aires with the Buenos Aires Filarmónica Orchestra conducted by Facundo Agudin. He is also the composer of several chamber music works , which he played in concert with musicians such as Tedi Papavrami, Gilles Colliard, François Guye, Denitsa Kazakova, Stefan Rusiecki, as well as with the Schumann Quartet. Some of these works have been recorded on a CD produced by Doron Music. His voice and piano-quartet transcriptions of the “Prélude et Mort d’Isolde”, of the “Wesendonck-Lieder” by Richard Wagner and of the “Rückert-Lieder” by Gustav Mahler have been rendered on several occasions in Switzerland, France and Spain by opera singer Dame Felicity Lott and the Schumann Quartet. In 2007 the Aeon company produced a CD of such transcriptions with the same artists.

In parallel with such activities, Christian Favre teaches at the High School of Music in Lausanne (HEMU) and regularly leads master classes in Switzerland and abroad. He is the artistic director and founder of the « Concours d’Interprétation Musicale de Lausanne » and has led the « Printemps de Romainmôtier » interpretation classes. He also leads interpretation classes at the Bienne International Summer Academy.

Amongst the many pupils whom he taught, mention can be made of Cédric Pescia, Jean-Selim Abdelmoula, Christian Chamorel, Mark Farago, Mauro lo Conte, Vittorio Forte, Sylvain Viredaz, Guy-François Leuenberger, Léonie Renaud, Lucas Buclin, Lionel Monnet, Magali Bourquin, Virginie Falquet, Antoine Rebstein, Yukiko Tanaka.