Willy Merz
*14 August 1964
Works by Willy Merz
Biography
With the composer and conductor Willy Merz, born in Lausanne in 1964 and now working in Turin, we are confronted with a particularly versatile personality on today's music scene. After studying in Milan, Siena and Paris with Goffredo Petrassi and Franco Donatoni ( composition ) and Ferdinand Leitner ( conducting ), among others, he emerged in 2003 as the prize-winner of the International Composition Competition in Freiburg i. Ue. Music by Willy Merz has been played or sung by outstanding artists such as Thomas Demenga, Alexander Lonquich, Dorothee Oberlinger, Maurice Bourgue, Sergio Azzolini, Edicson Ruiz and Cecilia Gasdia, orchestras such as Camerata Bern, Orchestre de Chambre de Neuchatel, Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto, Camerata Zürich, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne. Composer-in-residence at Cité des Arts, Paris, Gunnarsson Institute ( Iceland ), Fondation Altes Spittal, Solothurn, Switzerland.
CD releases with Stradivarius ( Milan ) and Almendra ( Palermo ).
About the music
His oeuvre includes solo works for various instruments, chamber music and solo vocal works; on the other hand, he also works in the "great genres" of opera, such as Aqua for soprano, contratenor, two viols, double bass, harpsichord, percussion and live electronics (Torino, Teatro Regio 2007) or choral works accompanied by orchestra, such as the Stabat Mater for four solos, choir and orchestra. A particularly important aspect of his artistic credo is his productive approach to history. On the one hand, his works repeatedly deal with literary history, as is evident in his setting of J.W. Goethe's Suleika ( Peking, 2002 ). On the other hand, works such as Offrandes for piano and orchestra ( Bern, Zentrum Klee 2016 ) stand for a reference to music history."
Willy Merz sings the poesy of the melancholic cosmopolite.He exploits wonderful the bass instruments, with a great melodic sensibility" Le Monde de la Musique.
Cantieri Culturali alla Zisa ( Palermo )
Willy Merz is music curator at the Merz Foundation. He currently coordinates a three-year music project at the Cantieri Culturali alla Zisa ( Palermo ).
In a grandiose space of industrial archaeology, listening opportunities are presented mixing the most varied genres, from ethnographic research to contemporary music, passing through electronics, songwriting, improvised music, etc. in search of the salient points of musical discourse.
The project is in collaboration with various institutions in the city of Palermo, including the Conservatory and the Teatro Massimo.