Christian Erny

In the season 22/23 he conducts for the first time the Theater Orchester Biel Solothurn and the Berner Bachchor. He also returns to the Vienna Morphing Orchestra for a Pärt program together with Roberto Alagna, Aleksandra Kursak and Andreas Scholl. Further engagements lead to collaborations with orchestras such as the Musikkollegium Winterthur, the Württembergische Philharmonie Reutlingen and the CHAARTS and with artists such as Roberto Gonzales Monjas and Caroline Shaw. The new album „Bruckner Spectrum,“ which he will release in 2022 with the Zurich Chamber Singers on the Berlin Classics label, is an intelligently curated program around the Latin motets of Anton Bruckner, enriched with works by Palestrina and a new composition by Burkhard Kinzler. 

Among the ensembles Erny has conducted recently are the Vienna Morphing Orchestra, the Lucerne Festival Strings, the Chor des Bayrischen Rundfunks, the Florianer Sängerknaben, the Orchestra of Europe, the baroque orchestra Les passions de l’Ame, the Sofia Symphony Orchestra, the Ruse Opera Orchestra and the Junge Philharmonie Zentralschweiz. He made his opera debut in 2019 with a Monteverdi production at the Luzerner Theater. From 2012 to 2018, he served as musical assistant for the choirs of the Konservatorium Winterthur.

Erny’s passion for contemporary music and his sensitive and innovative programming have brought him together with some of the most important composers of our time. He has premiered works by Arvo Pärt (EST), Rhiannon Rhandle (GB), Patrick Brennan (NIR), Kevin Hartnett (USA), Burkhard Kinzler (DE) and Julian Revie (USA). He also realized the world premiere recording of the work O magnum mysterium by Norwegian composer Marcus Paus.

As a pianist, Erny has recorded works by Lourié, Mozart, Schoenberg, Debussy and Liszt. His recordings have been nominated for the German Record Critics‘ Award and have received other awards such as the Gramophone Editor’s Choice. In 2015, he received a prize for the best interpretation of a work by Arnold Schoenberg at the Île de France International Piano Competition. He gives concerts in Europe, the USA and South America. In 2019, he was awarded the Cultural Grant of his hometown Winterthur for his artistic work to date.

Christian Erny enjoyed a broad musical education at the Winterthur Conservatory from the age of six and was active throughout his youth as a pianist and singer as well as a rock musician and songwriter. He then studied piano, conducting and music theory at the Zurich University of the Arts, the Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington and the Lucerne University. His teachers included Hans-Jürg Strub, Jean-Louis Haguenauer, Howard Arman, Markus Utz and Raphael Staubli. At the Jiri Hlinka Academy in Bergen (NO) he also received decisive inspiration from Leif Ove Andsnes and Eldar Nebolsin. 

A passionate and sought-after pedagogue, Erny teaches a large piano class at the Hochschule für Musik Basel and is head of the precollege music program at the Pedagogical Seminary in Kreuzlingen. As a guest, he has also taught at the Renaissance Arts Academy in Los Angeles and at the Collegio Suizo in Santiago de Chile.