Stream feat. Billy Hart
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Christophe Schweizer was born on April 9, 1968 in Berne, Switzerland, into a family of teachers and musicians. After taking first steps on the violin, he took up trombone and piano at age 10 and began playing Jazz at age 14. In 1988, he was accepted as a student of Professor Branimir Slokar at Berne Conservatory and was appointed Principal Trombone with the Swiss Youth Symphony. In 1989, his band won 2nd prize at the European Jazz Competition held in Leverkusen, Germany. Two years later, he participated in the Banff Jazz Workshop (where he would later return as a faculty member in 1999 and 2000) and performed with Paulo Moura at the Montreux and Zurich Jazz Festivals, besides playing with many groups in his native country. In 1992, he appeared as a soloist with Pro Musica Orchestra, Lausanne, playing J.G. Albrechtsbreger’s concerto for alto trombone. Later the same year, Christophe moved to New York, studying briefly at Mannes College with Conrad Herwig, David Taylor, Billy Hart and others, but quickly became immersed in a multitude of projects. David Taylor encouraged his interest in the bass trombone; as a consequence, in addition to the tenor trombone, Schweizer today performs also on bass trombone, contrabass trombone, alto trombone, euphonium, and tuba. In New York, Schweizer initiated several band projects, playing his own compositions, with which he recorded and toured regularly, and which established his reputation as a forward-thinking composer and performer. Among these were his group 5SIX7; his organ quartet with Ohad Talmor, George Colligan / Jason Moran, and Billy Hart / Tyshawn Sorey; his quintet with David Binney, Jacob Sacks, Dan Weiss, and Hans Glawischnig; and his Septet with Alex Sipiagin, Donny McCaslin, Eric Rasmussen, Ethan Iverson, Johannes Weidenmüller, and Billy Hart. In 1996, Christophe joined the George Gruntz Concert Jazz Band, with which he remained associated until 2003; he occasionally performed and toured with the Mingus Big Band from 1996 to 2005. In 1997, he played several concerts with the Maria Schneider Jazz Orchestra at their original location, Visiones. Other large ensembles with which Christophe has performed and / or recorded are the NDR Radio Big Band, Hamburg; WDR Radio Big Band, Cologne (Maceo Parker); Guimaraes Festival Orchestra, Portugal (Kenny Wheeler, Gianluigi Trovesi, Bob Mintzer); European Broadcast Union Big Band 2002 (Lead Trombone); Jazz Big Band Graz (John Hollenbeck, Kurt Elling, Jon Hendricks, Take Six, New York Voices); Zurich Jazz Orchestra (as Arranger-Conductor: Joe Zawinul /Weather Report repertoire); Big Band de Lausanne (Toots Thielemans, Phil Woods, Kenny Werner-Joe Lovano); Berlin Jazz Orchestra (Vinko Globokar); in 2016, he played lead trombone with Aarhus Jazz Orchestra (Denmark) in projects with David Sanborn (Sketches of Spain) and Perico Sambeat (Flamenco Jazz); since 2013, he has been the lead trombonist with Outreach Orchestra (Austria), for which he also arranges (Rebekka Bakken) and composes. Projects which Christophe has been a part of include: David Binney Free to Dream (Guimaraes Festival, 2001); Ohad Talmor / Lee Konitz (North Sea Jazz Festival, 2008); Fred Hersh “My Coma Dreams” (Berlin, 2012); Arkady Shilkloper World Project (Moscow, House of Music, 2006); Trio with Richie Beirach and Detlev Beier (bass), 2015 In 2006, Christophe appeared with Gstaad Festival Orchestra in Singapore as the soloist in Daniel Schnyder’s Alphorn Concerto. In January 2015, he was the only non-Georgian guest soloist with Tbilisi Symphony at a concert in honor of Georgian composer Gyia Kancheli’s 80th birthday at Rustaveli Hall, Tbilisi. Christophe’s interests both as a performer and as a composer extend to the fields of contemporary /Avant-garde Classical music and Pop; in recent years, he has premiered / recorded works by Brice Catherin, Barblina Meierhans, Rudolf Meyer, Marc Sabat, Stéphane Furic-Leibovici, Gene Pritsker, and Daniel Schnyder. His own work for 15-piece ensemble “Rumi: Silence is the language of god, everything else is poor translation” was premiered in 2016, and will be presented at Elpbphilharmonie, Hamburg, as part if the Lux Aeterna Festival in February, 2019. In Pop, he was a part of Matthew Herbert’s small group at the Berlin and Hamburg Festivals in 2015; most recently, he performed with Owen Pallett and Stargaze at Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie Hall in 2017. With conductor Kristijan Järvi’s Absolute Ensemble, he recorded parts of the music for the upcoming Netflix series “Babylon Berlin”. Christophe’s long-time association with drummer Billy Hart culminated in the release of their collaborative album with the WDR Big Band, “The Broader Picture”, on the Enja label in 2016, which Christophe arranged and conducted. This recording was met with much critical praise and internationally established his reputation as an accomplished and innovative arranger. In 2017, Christophe initiated a collaboration with Brazilian trombone legend Raúl de Souza, which premiered in September at Jazz Open Festival, Hamburg. This group is slated for touring in 2018. Another project in the making after a successful 2017 premiere is a quintet led by Brazilian pianist Alex Corrêa, which also features trumpeter Alex Sipiagin. Currently, Christophe is Adjunct Professor of Jazz composition at Hochschule für Musik und Theater, Hamburg, where he has been residing with his family since 2002. As of 2017, he was named a faculty member with Elbphilharmonie’s education programme. He has been a resident artist at Outreach Festival and Academy in Austria since 2013, alongside David Taylor, John Clark, Mino Cinelu, Mark Egan, Adam Holzman, Craig Harris, and others. Since 2008, Christophe has held the Bass Trombone / Tuba Chair in the Hamburg production of the Broadway show “The Lion King”. He serves as the Musical Director for the production “Valentin” at Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg and is the chairman and artistic head of Jazz Federation Hamburg, an organization which programs about 60 concerts per season.