SWISS ALPS CHAMBER ENSEMBLE

For founder and organizer Michael Reichel, the idea of the „Swiss Alps Classics" festival was linked to the vision of establishing his own ensemble, the „Swiss Alps Chamber Ensemble": Around a core group of (Viennese) musicians, members of top European orchestras were to meet annually to make music together in the St. Gotthard region. After starting in quartet, quintet and sextet form, a chamber orchestra conducted by Emmanuel Tjeknavorian and featuring Austrian and Swiss artists performed for the first time at Theater Uri in 2019, with Dieter Flury, a native of Küsnacht and long-time principal flautist and managing director of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, and his former student Sarah Rumer, now principal flautist of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande in Geneva, taking a prominent place.

In 2021, Emmanuel Tjeknavorian conducted a chamber orchestra made up of members of top Austrian orchestras and freelance artists in the wonderful church of the Benedictine Abbey in Disentis.

At the sixth edition of the festival in 2022, Maxim Brilinsky, principal violinist of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, was accompanied by three musicians working in Vienna in the beautiful and breathtaking Crystal Hall of the Bürgenstock Resort Lake Lucerne. For the future Swiss Alps Classics, the participation of a chamber ensemble consisting of members of various top European orchestras is being tried and planned.