About klavierduo huber|thomet

The two Swiss pianists Susanne Huber and André Thomet met while they were studying at the music universities in Bern, Paris, and Lucerne, where they studied with Michael Studer, Erika Radermacher, Germaine Mounier, Ivan Klansky, and Bruno Canino. Since that time, the two have worked continuously as a piano duo, klavierduo huber|thomet, and have built a multifaceted concert career.

The piano duo huber|thomet has appeared in numerous festivals and concert venues: among them are the Tonhalle in Zurich, the Lucerne Festival, the ppIANISSIMO Festival in Sofia, the Musikpodium in Zurich, the Musikfestival in Bern, and the Radialsystem space in Berlin. Concert tours have taken the duo to Germany, France, Italy, Holland, Bulgaria, Russia, Japan, and India. Many of their programs have been recorded by various international radio and television organizations.

The piano duo huber|thomet is fluent in the classical and romantic as well as contemporary literature for two pianos. Their repertory extends from the Bach concertos for two pianos through the masterpieces by Mozart, Schubert, and Brahms to the classical modern and avant-garde works of Igor Stravinsky, Olivier Messiaen, György Ligeti, György Kurtàg, Bernd Alois Zimmermann, and current contemporary composers. This diverse repertory permits the duo huber/thomet to arrange programs that use the confrontation between old and new music to discover contrasts as well as historical and musical interconnections.

The two musicians work regularly with contemporary composers and have commissioned and premiered many works: among them pieces by Isabel Mundry, Julia Wolfe, Daniel Glaus, Peter Streiff, and Martin Schütz. The duo assiduously promotes pieces for two pianos as well as works for piano four-hands, which enables them to explore the contrasts between intimate miniatures and works of symphonic proportions.

A further interest of the two artists is the dialogue with other artistic media. With this in mind, they have assembled programs that present music in connection with video, film, dance, and literature. They eagerly bring in other musicians for works such as the Bartok Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion or Steve Reich’s Sextet, experiment with elaborate preparations for the piano’s coloristic possibilities in works by John Cage, and include the latest pieces for toy piano and electronic instruments from the American avant-garde. They also explore the borders between composition and improvisation, and have even appeared on the stage as dancing pianists.

www.huberthomet.com