Oliver Schnyder

Oliver Schnyder (born 3 October 1973 in Brugg, Switzerland) is a Swiss classical pianist.

Oliver Schnyder studied with Emmy Henz-Diémand (taking his teaching and concert diploma of the Swiss Music Pedagogic Association SMPA in 1994), then studied in the master class of Homero Francesch at the Zurich University of the Arts, taking his soloist diploma in 1998.

He thereafter studied briefly with Ruth Laredo at the Manhattan School of Music in New York (1998) and from 1998 to 2001 in the class of Leon Fleisher in Baltimore (taking his Graduate Performance Diploma in 2001).

Since his debut recital in the year 2000 at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. and his solo debut in 2002 with Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra conducted by David Zinman on the occasion of the Orpheum Music Festival for the Advancement of Young Soloists in Zurich (today: Orpheum – Young Soloists on Stage), Oliver Schnyder has embarked on a global concert career.

Schnyder has also performed at numerous international festivals, such as at the Ruhr Piano Festival (2000), the Schwetzingen Festival (2007, 2013), the Menuhin Festival Gstaad (2008, 2010, 2017), the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival (2008), the Boswil Music Summer (Festival Artist 2008), the Ernen Music Village (2009, 2014, 2019), the Lugano Festival (2010, 2015), the Lucerne Festival (2010, 2011, 2014), the Frankfurt Musikfest (2017), the Schubertiade Schwarzenberg and Hohenems (2018), the Richard Strauss Festival Garmisch-Partenkirchen (2013) and the Bruckner Festival Linz (Brucknerhaus, 2020).

As a soloist, recitalist and chamber musician he has performed across all of Europe, in North and South America and the Far East, playing in Munich (in the Philharmonie in 2001 and 2003, the Herkulessaal in 2009 and the Prinzregententheater in 2011 and 2013), Osaka (Izumi Hall, 2003), Tokyo (Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall, 2003), Hong Kong (Hong Kong City Hall Concert Hall, 2004), London (Wigmore Hall, 2004, 2010, 2014, 2015), New York (Carnegie Hall, 2005, 2009), Frankfurt am Main (Alte Oper, 2005, 2017, 2019), Milan (Sala Verdi, 2005), Lucerne (Lucerne Culture and Congress Centre, 2005–2019), Moscow (Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, 2005, Tchaikovsky Hall, 2011), Beijing (Forbidden City Concert Hall, 2006), Hamburg (Laeiszhalle, 2007), Brussels (Palais des Beaux-Arts, 2008), Manchester (Bridgewater Hall, 2009), St. Petersburg (Philharmonia, 2009), Dortmund (Konzerthaus, 2010, 2011), Geneva (Victoria Hall, 2010, 2012, 2015, 2019), Taipei (National Concert Hall, 2011, 2015, 2017), Cologne (Kölner Philharmonie, 2012, 2014), Seoul (Seoul Arts Center, 2014, 2018), Rockville, Maryland (Music Center at Strathmore, 2015), Copenhagen (DR Koncerthuset, 2015), London (Cadogan Hall, 2015, 2017), Baltimore (Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, 2015) and Zurich (Tonhalle and Tonhalle Maag, 1998–2019).

Oliver Schnyder has performed as a soloist with many renowned orchestras, such as the Philharmonia Orchestra (on a tour conducted by Philippe Jordan, 2012), the Academy of Saint Martin in the Fields (a tour with Julia Fischer in 2015), the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (2015 under the baton of Mario Venzago), the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne (2010, with Semyon Bychkov), the Danish National Symphony Orchestra (2015, with Mario Venzago), the Zurich Chamber Orchestra and the Bern Symphony Orchestra (in the 2014/15 season, Schnyder was the orchestra's first-ever "Artiste étoile", and in this capacity joined them on a tour to England in May 2015; 2018), the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra (2002, 2013), the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra (2006, 2014, 2017, 2020), the Basel Symphony Orchestra (2002, 2018, UK Tour 2017), the Korean Symphony Orchestra (2018), the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra (2017), the Wurttemberg Philhamonia Reutlingen (2020), the South-west German Chamber Orchestra Pforzheim (2020), the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra (2008, 2011), the Hong Kong Sinfonietta (2004), the Oslo Camerata (2004, 2005), the Israel Sinfonietta (2008) and the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra (2018).

Oliver Schnyder is the pianist of the Oliver Schnyder Trio, which he founded in 2012 together with violinist Andreas Janke and cellist Benjamin Nyffenegger.

The Trio gave its debut in the Zurich Tonhalle on 4 February 2012 with Schubert's Piano Trio No. 2 in E-flat major.

Other chamber music partners include Julia Fischer, Nils Mönkemeyer, Sol Gabetta, Heinz Holliger, Antje Weithaas, Daniel Behle, Benjamin Appl, Regula Mühlemann, Lia Pale, Rachel Harnisch, Veronika Eberle, Marc Bouchkov, Vilde Frang, Alexander Sitkovetsky, Lars Anders Tomter, Jens Peter Maintz, Wolfram Christ, Christian Poltéra, Alina Pogostkina, Henning Kraggerud, Martin Grubinger, the Endellion String Quartet, the Carmina Quartet, the Gringolts Quartet and many more.

Oliver Schnyder's concerts have been broadcast by national public radio stations all over Europe and in the United States.

Oliver Schnyder is the founder and artistic director of Piano District (together with cultural manager Thomas Pfiffner), which brings top-class pianists to the "Druckerei" (a former printing plant) in his hometown Baden.

Since 2013, pianists such as Radu Lupu, Emanuel Ax, Mikhail Pletnev, Fazıl Say, Kit Armstrong, Yulianna Avdeeva, Angela Hewitt, Stephen Kovacevich, Christian Zacharias, Jan Lisiecki, Dmitry Masleev, Philippe Entremont, Paul Badura-Skoda, Janina Fialkowska and Richard Goode have performed on the stage of Piano District, as well as piano duos such as Tal & Groethuysen, and Anderson & Roe.

Recordings of Oliver Schnyder have been awarded in numerous cases i.e. by the Opernwelt (Winterreisen, 2015), by the Rondo Magazine (Recommendation of the week for the Brahms Piano Trios, 2014), by the Aargauer Zeitung (Best Swiss Classical Album of the year 2014 for the Brahms Trios and Best Swiss Classical Album of the year 2013 for the Schubert Trios), by NDR Kultur (CD of the week for the Mendelssohn Piano Concertos, 2013, and CD of the day for Schumann Piano Works, 2010), by the Kulturspiegel (former supplement of Der Spiegel, classification of the Haydn Piano Concertos as part of the series "The best good Classical CD", 2013), of the Fono Forum (for Liszt Années de pèlerinage, 2012), of ClassicFM (CD of the week for the Haydn Piano Concertos, 2012) and of rbb Kulturradio (CD of the week for the Beethoven Project, Complete Concertos and Overtures, 2017, and the Haydn Piano Concertos, 2012).

Further renowned conductors with whom Schnyder has performed include Howard Griffiths, Muhai Tang, Sir Roger Norrington (Tour with the Zurich Chamber Orchestra in 2016), Michail Jurowski (Korean Symphony Orchestra 2018), Howard Arman, James Gaffigan (Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, complete cycle of the Beethoven Piano Concertos 2017) and Ivor Bolton (Basel Symphony Orchestra 2017, 2018).

Schnyder has been guest artistic director of the Ittingen Whitsun Concerts 2016 (founded by András Schiff and Heinz Holliger), and 2018/2019 artistic director of the Davos Festival – Young Artists in Concert.

In 2018, Oliver Schnyder and his wife Fränzi Frick have been appointed artistic directors of the festival Lenzburgiade Classic & Folk International.