Oliver Schnyder

Education

Oliver Schnyder studied with Emmy Henz-Diémand (taking his teaching and concert diploma of the Swiss Music Pedagogic Association SMPA in 1994), then studied in the master class of Homero Francesch at the Zurich University of the Arts, taking his solo diploma in 1998. He thereafter studied briefly with Ruth Laredo at the Manhattan School of Music in New York (1998) and from 1998 to 2001 in the class of Leon Fleisher in Baltimore (taking his Graduate Performance Diploma in 2001).

Career

Since his debut recital in the year 2000 at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. and his solo debut in 2002 with Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra conducted by David Zinman on the occasion of the Orpheum Music Festival for the Orpheum Festival Days for the Advancement of Young Soloists in Zurich (today: Orpheum – Young Soloists on Stage), Oliver Schnyder has embarked on a global concert career. As a soloist, recitalist and chamber musician he has performed across all of Europe, in North and South America and the Far East, playing in Munich (in the Philharmonie in 2001 and 2003, the Herkulessaal in 2009 and the Prinzregententheater in 2011 and 2013), Osaka (Izumi Hall, 2003), Tokyo (Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall, 2003), Hong Kong (Hong Kong City Hall Concert Hall, 2004), London (Wigmore Hall, 2004, 2010, 2014, 2015), New York (Carnegie Hall, 2005, 2009), Frankfurt am Main (Alte Oper, 2005), Milan (Sala Verdi, 2005), Lucerne (Lucerne Culture and Congress Centre, 2005–2014), Moscow (Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, 2005, Tchaikovsky Hall, 2011), Beijing (Forbidden City Concert Hall, 2006), Hamburg (Laeiszhalle, 2007), Brussels (Palais des Beaux-Arts, 2008), Manchester (Bridgewater Hall, 2009), St. Petersburg (Philharmonia, 2009), Dortmund (Konzerthaus, 2010, 2011), Geneva (Victoria Hall, 2010, 2012, 2015), Taipei (National Concert Hall, 2011, 2015), Cologne (Philharmonie, 2012, 2014), Seoul (Seoul Arts Center, 2014), Rockville, Maryland (Music Center at Strathmore, 2015), Copenhagen (DR Koncerthuset, 2015), London (Cadogan Hall, 2015) and Baltimore (Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, 2015).

Schnyder has also performed at numerous international festivals, such as at the Ruhr Piano Festival (2000), the Schwetzingen Festival (2007, 2013), the Menuhin Festival Gstaad (2008, 2010), the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival (2008), the Boswil Music Summer (Festival Artist 2008), the Ernen Music Village (2009, 2014), the Lugano Festival (2010, 2015), the Lucerne Festival (2010, 2011, 2014) and the Richard Strauss Festival Garmisch-Partenkirchen (2013).

Oliver Schnyder has performed as a soloist with many renowned orchestras, such as the Philharmonia Orchestra (on a tour conducted by Philippe Jordan, 2012), the Academy of Saint Martin in the Fields (a tour with Julia Fischer in 2015), the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (2015 under the baton of Mario Venzago), the Danish National Symphony Orchestra (2015 with Mario Venzago), the Zurich Chamber Orchestra and the Bern Symphony Orchestra (in the 2014/15 season, Schnyder was the orchestra’s first-ever “Artiste étoile”, and in this capacity joined them on a tour to England in May 2015).

Further renowned conductors with whom Schnyder has performed include Semyon Bychkov (WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne, on tour in 2010), Howard Griffiths and Muhai Tang.

Oliver Schnyder is the pianist of the Schnyder Trio, which he founded in 2012 (as the Oliver Schnyder Trio) together with violinist Andreas Janke and the cellist Benjamin Nyffenegger. The Trio gave its debut in the Zurich Tonhalle on 4 February 2012 with Schubert’s Piano Trio No. 2 in E-flat major.

Cultural involvement

Oliver Schnyder is the founder and artistic director of Piano District, whose aim is to bring top-class concerts into the spaces of selected industrial monuments of the canton of Aargau, and of Piano Legends, which organises concerts with legendary pianists. He is also the Intendant of the Ittingen Whitsun Concerts 2016 (founded by Andras Schiff and Heinz Holliger).

Scholarships, prizes and awards

Recordings of Oliver Schnyder have been awarded in numerous cases i.e. by the Opernwelt (Winterreisen, 2015), by the Rondo Magazine (Recommendation of the week for the Brahms Piano Trios, 2014), by the Aargauer Zeitung (Best Swiss Classical Album of the year 2014 for the Brahms Trios and Best Swiss Classical Album of the year 2013 for the Schubert Trios), by NDR Kultur (CD of the week for the Mendelssohn Piano Concertos, 2013, and CD of the day for Schumann Piano Works, 2010), by the Kulturspiegel (supplement of Der Spiegel, classification of the Haydn Piano Concertos as part of the series “The best good Classical CD”, 2013), of the Fono Forum (for Liszt Années de pèlerinage, 2012), of ClassicFM (CD of the week for the Haydn Piano Concertos, 2012) and of rbb Kulturradio (CD of the week for the Haydn Piano Concertos, 2012).

Discography