The Swiss Chamber Choir, which was founded in 1997 at the instigation of Fritz Näf and the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra, is especially dedicated to symphonic choral music but also performs a cappella music from the 17th to the 21st centuries. In addition to its concerts with the Tonhalle Orchestra under principal conductor David Zinman, the choir has performed with the LUCERNE FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA under Claudio Abbado, the Berlin Philharmonic and Pierre Boulez, the Vienna Philharmonic under Simon Rattle, the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Kurt Masur, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra under Bernard Haitink, and the Mariinsky Orchestra under Valery Gergiev. In Zurich they have also appeared in concerts with Herbert Blomstedt, Ivor Bolton, Eric Ericson, Christopher Hogwood, Heinz Holliger, Marek Janowski, Ton Koopman, Gennady Roshdestvensky, Kurt Sanderling, and Wolfgang Sawallisch. The singers have traveled to South America and to Malaysia for guest engagements. The ensemble’s work has been released on numerous CDs and DVDs, including Abbado’s account of Debussy’s Le Martyre de Saint Sébastien. Fritz Näf, who was born in 1943 in Weiach (in the canton of Zurich), graduated in vocal studies from the Music Academies of Zurich and Freiburg and took master classes with Ernst Haefliger and Jenny Tourel. As a tenor he has concertized throughout many European countries. He meanwhile took up choral and orchestral conducting. Näf, who has taught at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis and who was director of the Winterthur Conservatory as well as of the Zurich Academy for Music and Theater, has served since 2000 as the full-time director of the Swiss Chamber Choir and of the Basle Madrigal Singers, which he founded in 1978. He has appeared as a guest artist with the Choir and Orchestra of Swiss Italian Radio, the Choir of Radio France, and the Concerto Köln, among others.
LUCERNE FESTIVAL (IMF) debut on September 11, 1999 in Mahler’s Second Symphony under Simon Rattle.
June, 2010