Noëmi Schindler
Founder and artistic director
“I was just three years old the first time I was rocked to sleep on the balcony of the Trübelihaus in Alvaneu under the gaze of those four gigantic mountains—Muchetta, Piz Ela, Corn da Tinizong and Piz Mitgel. The force of the rocks here, the expressiveness of the centuries-old frescoes on the walls, the vast barns: all have marked me and given me wings every time I come back to my second home of Alvaneu from one of the cities where I usually spend my time. Now I want to use my personal medium of music to share this creative energy with anyone who wants to join in. My hope is that the MusicAlvaneu festival will send vibrations through these walls and stones and buildings and mountains, through all kinds of different places where music has never been played before.
“One day when I was fifteen my mother took me to Paris, and it was there that I went to school and set off on the path towards my vocation as a musician. That pulsating city became the focus of my life. From Paris I travelled all over the world, performing a wide repertoire of classical and contemporary music as a soloist and a chamber musician. However, there is nowhere on earth quite like Alvaneu, and it is this feeling to which I would like to give voice through the MusicAlvaneu festival. So: Willkommen! Bienvenue! Bainvegni! Welcome to Alvaneu!”
“I was just three years old the first time I was rocked to sleep on the balcony of the Trübelihaus in Alvaneu under the gaze of those four gigantic mountains—Muchetta, Piz Ela, Corn da Tinizong and Piz Mitgel. The force of the rocks here, the expressiveness of the centuries-old frescoes on the walls, the vast barns: all have marked me and given me wings every time I come back to my second home of Alvaneu from one of the cities where I usually spend my time. Now I want to use my personal medium of music to share this creative energy with anyone who wants to join in. My hope is that the MusicAlvaneu festival will send vibrations through these walls and stones and buildings and mountains, through all kinds of different places where music has never been played before.
“One day when I was fifteen my mother took me to Paris, and it was there that I went to school and set off on the path towards my vocation as a musician. That pulsating city became the focus of my life. From Paris I travelled all over the world, performing a wide repertoire of classical and contemporary music as a soloist and a chamber musician. However, there is nowhere on earth quite like Alvaneu, and it is this feeling to which I would like to give voice through the MusicAlvaneu festival. So: Willkommen! Bienvenue! Bainvegni! Welcome to Alvaneu!”
Thomas Kollegger
Board member, musician with the Huusmusig Kollegger
Thomas Kollegger is a legal expert and former solicitor who has run a department of Grisons cantonal council for several years now. In his free time, he is president of the Albula/Alvra Catholic parish church and helps out various other non-profit organisations. He loves languages, books and music. He plays with the Huusmusig Kollegger and regularly makes music with brass bands and choirs.
Want to know more about playing the alpenhorn while doing a headstand on the Great Wall of China or about the Ansaina riverside walk and the former principality of Belfort? Ask him and he’ll be happy to share his stories.
Thomas Kollegger is a legal expert and former solicitor who has run a department of Grisons cantonal council for several years now. In his free time, he is president of the Albula/Alvra Catholic parish church and helps out various other non-profit organisations. He loves languages, books and music. He plays with the Huusmusig Kollegger and regularly makes music with brass bands and choirs.
Want to know more about playing the alpenhorn while doing a headstand on the Great Wall of China or about the Ansaina riverside walk and the former principality of Belfort? Ask him and he’ll be happy to share his stories.
Balz Homberger
Restaurateur, teacher and chair of MusicAlvaNeu
Balz Homberger is active across a range of fields. After first studying music, he completed a hotel management course in Lucerne before gaining a lot of experience as a solo chef and in larger kitchen teams in various restaurants. Twenty-five years ago, he qualified as secondary school teacher. After several years in the classroom at a special-needs school in Zurich, he set up a pilot project on Rheinau Island to work with pupils who had been prematurely excluded from full-time education. The aim was to integrate these youngsters into society and restore the all-important self-confidence they had lost and so Balz gave the pupils practical training in partnership with the Gut Rheinau farm.
After eight successful years, the class was forced to close due to cuts by the canton of Zurich. Balz now teaches at the vocational college in Bülach near Zurich, where he and his pupils offer high-class food at the college cafeteria. He also demonstrates his versatility in the wood and metal workshop and the classroom.
His culinary creations will complement and enhance the music at the festival.
Balz Homberger is active across a range of fields. After first studying music, he completed a hotel management course in Lucerne before gaining a lot of experience as a solo chef and in larger kitchen teams in various restaurants. Twenty-five years ago, he qualified as secondary school teacher. After several years in the classroom at a special-needs school in Zurich, he set up a pilot project on Rheinau Island to work with pupils who had been prematurely excluded from full-time education. The aim was to integrate these youngsters into society and restore the all-important self-confidence they had lost and so Balz gave the pupils practical training in partnership with the Gut Rheinau farm.
After eight successful years, the class was forced to close due to cuts by the canton of Zurich. Balz now teaches at the vocational college in Bülach near Zurich, where he and his pupils offer high-class food at the college cafeteria. He also demonstrates his versatility in the wood and metal workshop and the classroom.
His culinary creations will complement and enhance the music at the festival.
Sophia Murer
Graphic designer
Sophia Murer studied graphic design and then worked at the Zoological Museum of the University of Zurich. This was followed by eight years in New York, where she was a freelance graphic designer and set her up own studio. Since returning to Switzerland in 2004 she has run the peakfein studio for graphic design, which specialises in cultural projects. She also works with Paul Avondel on film digitalisation and restoration as well as title animation. In 2022 she organised an oral-history project www.wirbergler.ch about mountain farmers in the canton of Uri during the 1970s. An accompanying aural installation is on display at the Haus für Kunst Uri.
Sophia Murer studied graphic design and then worked at the Zoological Museum of the University of Zurich. This was followed by eight years in New York, where she was a freelance graphic designer and set her up own studio. Since returning to Switzerland in 2004 she has run the peakfein studio for graphic design, which specialises in cultural projects. She also works with Paul Avondel on film digitalisation and restoration as well as title animation. In 2022 she organised an oral-history project www.wirbergler.ch about mountain farmers in the canton of Uri during the 1970s. An accompanying aural installation is on display at the Haus für Kunst Uri.
Web design: Nabil Amara
Web design: Nabil Amara
