Pianist Conductor Professor

Louis Schwizgebel has been described as “a genuine virtuoso, a spirited young genius with real depth” (FonoForum) and an “insightful musician” (New York Times). He is praised repeatedly for his poise, elegance, imagination, expressive lyricism and crystalline articulation. He performs regularly in recital and with the finest orchestras across the globe and has received critical acclaim for his recordings.

Schwizgebel has played with orchestras such as Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, Vienna Symphony, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre National de Lyon, Orchestre National du Capitol de Toulouse, Hungarian National Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Auckland Philharmonia, Shanghai Philharmonic, Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra, London Philharmonic, City of Birmingham Symphony, and the BBC orchestras.

He appears at festivals such as Verbier Festival, BBC Proms, Lucerne Festival, Menuhin Festival Gstaad, Progetto Martha Argerich, Festival Septembre Musical Montreux-Vevey, Bergen International Festival, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Rheingau Musik Festival, and Klavier-Festival Ruhr.

He has worked with conductors such as Elim Chan, Edward Gardner, Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, Vasily Petrenko, Thierry Fischer, Charles Dutoit, Fabien Gabel, John Wilson, Lahav Shani, Fabio Luisi, Emmanuel Krivine, Nicholas Collon, Marek Janowski, Robin Ticciati, Santtu-Matias Rouvali, Louis Langrée, Allondra de la Parra, Joshua Weilerstein, Domingo Hindoyan, and Roberto González-Monjas.

Schwizgebel records for Aparté. His recording of Schubert Sonatas D845 and D958 was described as an “album of extraordinary precision” by Le Figaro. Previous releases include Saint-Saens Piano Concertos No. 2 and 5 with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, described as “gorgeously singing and wonderfully delicate” by BBC Music Magazine, and Beethoven Piano Concertos No. 1 and 2 with the London Philharmonic Orchestra hailed as a “beautifully nuanced account” by Gramophone.

Schwizgebel is a professor at the Geneva University of Music (HEM). He was one of the youngest professors ever appointed to the position in the school’s history since Franz Liszt.

Schwizgebel is also active as a conductor. He specialises in playing/conducting from the keyboard.

Schwizgebel was born in 1987 in Geneva. He studied with Brigitte Meyer in Lausanne and Pascal Devoyon in Berlin, and then later at the Juilliard School with Emanuel Ax and Robert McDonald, and at London’s Royal Academy of Music with Pascal Nemirovski. At the age of seventeen he won the Geneva International Music Competition and, two years later, the Young Concert Artists International Auditions in New York. In 2012 he won second prize at the Leeds International Piano Competition and in 2013 he became a BBC New Generation Artist.