Stephan Schmidt

Stephan Schmidt studied in Trossingen, Germany, Paris and New York, and received scholarships from the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes and the DAAD. He has won several first prizes in international competitions such as the 30th Radio France International Guitar Competition, which paved the way for his concert career from an early age. Collaborations followed with Maurice Ohana, Heinz Holliger, Fred Frith, Juliane Banse, Jörg Widmann, Kurt Widmer, David Moss, Pedro Bacan and Chaya Czernowin. In 2013 he gave the premiere performance of the Guitar Concerto dedicated to him by Chaya Czernowin at the Lucerne Festival with the Südwestfunk Symphony Orchestra conducted by François-Xavier Roth. Several of his recordings are regarded as the definitive versions, including the complete works for guitar by Maurice Ohana or the lute works of Johann Sebastian Bach. His recordings have received high praise from critics and won many international prizes, among them the Grand Prix du Disque de l’Académie Charles Cros and the Diapason d’Or several times. In 2003, the French magazine Diapason named three of his CDs among the 25 best guitar recordings of all time. From 1988 to 2001 he was professor of guitar and artistic director for master classes at the conservatory in Bern. He has been a faculty member and president Basel’s Musikhochschule since 2002. Schmidt has been director of the Music Academy in Basel as well as director of the state music conservatory and Schola Cantorum Basiliensis at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland FHNW since 2012.

Photography: Martin Chiang

The artist's homepage:

http://www.stephanschmidt.ch