The Swiss Ambassador’s Award Concert is coming to Cardiff

The Swiss Ambassador’s Award Concert will take place at the Reardon Smith Theatre, National Museum Cardiff on 25 September 2008.

Tickets at £10.00 each include a programme and a complimentary glass of sparkling Swiss wine. Box office will open on 1 July: Tel. 02920 878 444 (St. David’s Hall) or www.scfb.org.uk

The Swiss Ambassador’s Award Concert was established with the aim of presenting in the UK some of the most talented young Swiss musicians or ensembles. Cardiff will feature for the first time on this annual concert tour which is organised by the Embassy of Switzerland and the Swiss Cultural Fund in Britain (SCFB), a charity promoting Swiss artistic excellence in the UK. The musician selected to perform in the 2008 concert is Louis Schwizgebel-Wang, an outstanding young pianist.

Louis Schwizgebel-Wang was born in 1987 in Geneva and began to play the piano at the age of six. Three years later he was admitted to the superior level of the Lausanne Conservatoire where he studied with Brigitte Meyer. At the age of fifteen he graduated with honours as a soloist. He is currently pursuing his studies at the University of the Arts in Berlin with Pascal Devoyon and Jean-Jacques Balet.

Louis, whose Swiss father and Chinese mother are both visual artists, gave his first concerts when he was just nine. Ever since, he has repeatedly performed on the most prestigious international stages and also played for radio and television. He has appeared with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and the Basel Symphony Orchestra and has won several prizes, including the Second Prize in the Geneva Music Competition in 2005 (no First Prize being awarded that year), as well as the Coup de Coeur Breguet Prize and the Public Prize. In 2007 he won First Prize in the Young Concert Artists competition in New York, which included appearances at the Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall, two of the finest American concert halls. His first disc was released in 2006.
www.louisschwizgebelwang.com

“He already shows a comprehension of each work’s overall direction and an acute sensitivity to the more subtle but essential details of touch and tone that distinguish one work from another – matters you expect from a musician farther along the concert circuit.”
Cecilia Porter, The Washington Post

“Mr Schwizgebel-Wang offered passionate readings, phrased with an expressive elasticity that never distorted the music’s dramatic arc.”
Steve Smith, The New York Times

The Ambassador of Switzerland, Alexis P. Lautenberg, will personally support the concert in Cardiff. He said “Switzerland wants to show its continued support to Wales after the launch of an honorary consulate last year”.