Biography

Katharina Weber – Pianist & Composer

Born 1958 in Bern. She has studied piano in Basel and Bern with Jürg Wyttenbach, Urs Peter Schneider, Erika Radermacher and Jörg Ewald Dähler.
Masterclasses with Tatyana Nikolajewa and Hubert Harry (piano); Yehudi Menuhin and György Kurtag (chamber music); Vinko Globokar, Frederic Rzewski, Pauline Oliveros, Fred Frith and Barre Phillips (improvisation).
1987 Soloist Award of the Swiss Musicians Association (AMS)
2000 awarded with the Buergi-Willert Prize (assigned by Heinz Holliger       to 5 other composers)
2001 Large Music Prize of the Canton of Bern

In Switzerland and abroad, Ms. Weber has given concert as a soloist with conductors such as Jürg Wyttenbach and Heinz Holliger and as a member of chamber music ensembles.

 
As a pianist she works jointly with composers (Erika Radermacher, Urs Peter Schneider, Peter Streiff, Sandor Veress, György Kurtag, Gunnar Berg, Thomas Mueller, Erich Schmid, Christian Henking, Edu Haubensak etc.).

 
She has made recordings for the national radio and for CDs and been active as an organizer/co-ordinator for the local section of the International Society for New Music (IGNM) and the association Workshop of Improvised Music (WIM) in Bern.

As an improvising pianist Ms. Weber plays improvised solo concerts and has worked together with musicians such as Erika Radermacher, Irene Schweizer, Jürg Solothurnmann, Alfred Zimmerlin, Franziska Baumann, Fred Frith.

She is also involved with intermedia projects combining music with pantomime, eurhythmy, theatre, painting and poetry which often are improvised, too.

Presently, Ms.Weber is active in a program with the Butoh-dancer Pia Maria, in a trio with the percussionist Balts Nill and the bass-player Barry Guy and in the duo with Christian Kobi.

Since 1994 she is also writing individual compositions, both in the form of improvisational concepts as well as through composed solo and chamber music pieces. 
Katharina Weber teaches piano and improvisation at the Music School of the Art University and at the Conservatory of Bern.