Bruno Spoerri

Bruno Spoerri (b. 1935) played as a saxophonist in various jazz groups as a student, and from 1956 with the Modern Jazz Group Freiburg. From 1957 to 1975 he was a member of the Metronome Quintet and the quintet of Remo Rau and Hans Kennel. From 1964 he composed for commercials, and from 1967 freelanced as composer and sound engineer. He made early experiments with electrified saxophone, the Ondes Martenot and EMS synthesizers. He cooperated with Hans Deyssenroth and Joël Vandroogenbroeck (Brainticket).

Spoerri was musical director of the Zurich Jazz Festival between 1970 and 1973 and again from 1975 to 1977. For a long time he played with Albert Mangelsdorff, Reto Weber, Christy Doran and Ernst Reijseger. Touring has taken him to the USA, Japan, India and Ethiopia, among other places. He’s also created music for commercials, documentaries and feature films (including Markus Imhoof’s “Tauwetter”, Rolf Lyssy’s “Teddy Bär”, H.U. Schlumpf’s “Der Kongress der Pinguine”). Spoerri is editor and co-author of the works “Jazz in Switzerland - History and Stories” (Chronos-Verlag, Zurich 2005)  and “Music from Nothing” (Chronos-Verlag, Zurich 2010) on the history of electroacoustic music in Switzerland. He works with interactive computer systems that give him the opportunity to enter into musical communication with his devices. Spoerri worked as a lecturer at the music academies in Zurich, Biel and Lucerne. In 2015 he received the Golden Medal of Honor from the Canton of Zurich, and in 2017 the Swiss Jazz Award for his life’s work.