piano and composition
Esther Flückiger born on 06.10.1959 in Berne – Switzerland,
is a pianist (classical, contemporary music, crossover) improviser and composer. Her creative ideas are unlimited and she is continuously experimenting new musical directions and emotional music challenges, avoiding previous musical paths. She focuses on the interpretation of contemporary and traditional music, free improvisation and electronic music. She plays with different stylistic directions both solo and in ensemble. She has put on concerts in Europe, USA, Russia, Asia and South America, taking part in traditional and contemporary music festivals and as a soloist with orchestra. As a composer she wrote and got commissions for works for different kinds of instruments and electronic, for music theatre and films. She has also created many multimedia projects producing her own films (camera/editing) and getting both public and printing review success. One of them is “Cosmo” (The 4 elements in Leonardo da Vinci’s universo), a project for the EXPO 2015 in Milan at the Franco Parenti Teatre.
She works and plays with musicians/formations like John Wolf Brennan, Lucas Niggli, Ferdinando Faraò, Trio Flair, Lukas Ligeti, Ars Ludi Rome, Pietro Pirelli, Irène Schweizer, Massimo Mazzoni, Camilla Barbarito, Orchestra Artchipel and many others.
For her multimedia projects she collaborated with Eveline Hasler, Anna Felder, Toni Maraini (writers), Susana Talayero, Karin Eggers, Luca Mengoni (artists) and many other artists and also actors.
She was a professor in pianoteaching at the faculty of music at the Einstein Gymnasium Aarau (CH) and gave numerous workshops at universities in Switzerland, Germany and Italy.
She has recorded CDs for record labels such as Nuova Era, Pentaphon, Altrisuoni, Leorecords, Pianoversal and many more. In addition, she has participated in television and radio programes in Switzerland and Italy.
Esther Flückiger is the founder of Suonodonne Italia, which is committed to the spreading of music by Women Composers. She organized from 1995 – 2000 the Festival “Fra Nord e Sud“ in Milan, Rome and Berne. From 2002 till 2008 she represented Europe as an executive member of the IAWM (International Alliance for Women in Music), USA.
She is in the board of AGON Milan (research center for electronic music and new technologies) and in the board of Contemporary Music Hub Milan.
In 2022, her work “Guarda i lumi” was selected to represent Switzerland at the World Music New Days in New Zealand.
The book “Esther Flückiger – A proposito di Lei” by Iaia Gagliani provides an insight into her work as a musician in word and picture.
In november and december, she was awarded a research trip to South Africa by the Swiss cultural foundation Pro Hevetia. She realized several different projects there with South African musicians and also recorded a CD.
Currently she works/performs:
– with Ferdinandò Faraò (drummer)
– “Ira -Arka“ with Marcela Pavia
– as Art Director for the festival “Autji d’Autunn“ in october in Piemonte (IT)