A virtuoso classical pianist from Zurich, Switzerland, Werner Bartschi is widely acclaimed for the extraordinary range of music he embraces and interprets from the Renaissance period to the modern day. Constantly inventive, instinctive and challenging, he brought freshness and originality to the work of Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Liszt and Chopin, but proved himself equally exciting and passionate approaching the music of more modernist figures like Charles Ives, Erik Satie and Carl Nielsen.
Drawing inspiration from John Cage, Armin Schibler, Klaus Huber and Rudolf Kelterborn, his attitude was to re-define everything he played - a style that made his playing constantly challenging and consistently exciting. Consequently he became a popular concert pianist and recording artist all over the world, with a particular interest in creating thematic works and in 1980 he created 'Rezital' a concert series in Zurich presenting a conceptual concert series based on works by Satie and Ives. He soon also established himself as a fine composer in his own right, writing and performing a broad range of his own compositions, including orchestral works and operas. In 1987 he was appointed artistic director at Musikkollegium Zürcher Oberland and also became a prolific publisher of music books and sheet music.
