Artist(s)

Olivier Darbellay - horn
Olivier Darbellay was born in Bern and grew up in a musical family. He studied the cello at the Bern Conservatory with Patrick Demenga and Peter Hörr as well as the horn with Thomas Müller in Bern and Basel. He completed his horn studies with Bruno Schneider in Freiburg i.Br., graduating „with excellence“. Since his first prize at the „Tribune des Jeunes interprètes“ in 2000 in Lisbon, as well as being named „Soloist of the year 2000“ at the Union of French Radios Competition, he performs as a soloist and chamber musician in the most prestigious halls and festivals across Europe, North America and Asia.

Olivier Darbellay specialises as much in the historical repertoire performed on period instruments as well as in the contemporary repertoire, where he works closely with composers such as Holliger, Pauset, Gervasoni, Gubler and Darbellay and regularly perfoms world premieres.

In addition to performing and his positions as principal horn of the Berne Symphony Orchestra and the Basel Chamber Orchestra Darbellay is a dedicated teacher, holding masterclasses and workshops across the world, as well as professorships at both the academies of Lucerne and Lausanne.

Noëlle-Anne Darbellay – violin
Noëlle-Anne Darbellay was born in 1980 in Bern and grew up in a family of musicians. After studying at the University of the Arts in Utrecht (the Netherlands) with Karen Turpie, she graduated with a master’s degree in performance from the Geneva University of music under the guidance of Stefan Muhmenthaler, whom she now assists in the field of contemporary violin music. She received valuable insights from teachers including David Takeno, Felix Andrievsky, Bruno Canino and Siegfried Palm, as well as from Julia Schröder for the baroque violin. As a soloist she has played amongst others at the Lucerne Festival, the rainy days Festival from the Philharmonia Luxembourg, the Musiksommer Ernen, New Music Festival Kraków, Rencontres Musicales de Champéry, at the ISCM World New Music Days, Music Documents Tokyo and the Festival International de Musique Tibor Varga in Sion.

Her activity as a chamber musician – particularly with her brother, the horn player Olivier Darbellay – has taken her on numerous concert tours in Europe and Asia.

She is a member of the Nouvel Ensemble Contemporain, concertmaster of the Ludus Ensemble Bern and plays as a guest with the Basel Chamber Orchestra and the Freitagsakademie for ancient music, amongst others.

Noëlle-Anne Darbellay is particularly interested in contemporary music and music theatre and has premiered numerous compositions (including works by Jürg Wyttenbach) for singing and reciting violinist with live productions broadcast on Deutschlandfunk, Espace2, Denmark Radio and SRF2 Kultur. She has been invited to perform a.o. at the Albertina Vienna, Brunel University London, Sprengel Museum Hannover, Museum der Moderne Salzburg, Great Gutter Festival Zürich, Kunstmuseum St.Gallen, Dampfzentrale Bern and the Centre Dürrenmatt Neuchâtel. Recordings at Grammont with pieces by Jean-Luc Darbellay and at Christopherus with the Ensemble Leones for ancient music.

Together with the artist Francisco Sierra and the horn player Samuel Stoll she forms the collective Jetpack Bellerive. Through thematic projects they sound out the boundaries between new music, fine art and performance.
In 2011 she received the recognition award from the music committee of the Canton of Bern.

Benjamin Engeli - piano 
Benjamin Engeli is one of the most versatile Swiss musicians of his generation. His career as a soloist, chamber musician and teacher has taken him to most European countries as well as to Australia, India, North and South America. As a member of the Tecchler Trio, he was the 1st Prize winner at the International ARD Music Competition in Munich in 2007, and has since then performed in venues such as the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Konzerthaus Berlin, Wigmore Hall London, Tchaikovsky Conservatory Moscow, Oriental Arts Center Shanghai, Konzerthaus Vienna or Tonhalle Zurich. He is now member of the Zurich Ensemble and also one out of the 4 pianists of the Gershwin Piano Quartet, with whom he conducted concert tours to Brazil, China and the Middle East.

Benjamin comes from a family of musicians and started his musical education on various instruments at an early age. Only when he was fifteen did he decide to take his first regular piano lessons, studying with Adrian Oetiker with whom he continued to work for 7 years. He later also studied with Homero Francesch, Lazar Berman, Andrzej Jasinski, Maurizio Pollini and András Schiff.

Since many years he is also teaching up-and-coming musicians. For 8 years he held a teaching position for chamber music at Musikhochschule Basel (Switzerland) and serves now as Professor for Piano at Landeskonservatorium Feldkirch (Austria).
 

Composer(s)

Press

Brahms' Trio Op. 40 is presented by Olivier and Noëlle-Anne Darbellay with an interesting interpretation (three stars)
De Volkskrant, 14-2-2019

Delightful little gems played here in the composer’s own version with viola replacing violin.
Fanfare, 02-11-2018

Enchanting romantic soundworlds.
Fono Forum, 03-8-2018

Very nice music, perfectly played. Recommended.
Stretto, 24-3-2018