Jürg Frey – composer of quiet | Swiss Music Prizes 2021

The Aargau composer Jürg Frey (* 1953) writes contemplative music that achieves its harmonious effect as much from silence as it does from sound. After his studies at the Conservatoire de Musique de Genève, he first pursued a career as a clarinetist. However, composition was soon to take centre stage: a poet of sound, Jürg Frey paints quiet tonal landscapes, meandering through open forms suspended in poetic weightlessness. “WEN“, a cycle of 59 solo pieces, reveals the alphabet of his artistic language in exemplary fashion. Jürg Frey has worked with the Mondrian Ensemble, the Quatuor Bozzini and the performance collective Die Maulwerker. He has also lectured at numerous universities, including the Berlin University of the Arts and the California Institute of the Arts. Jürg Frey has received numerous commissions and invitations, including to the Centre Culturel Suisse in Paris and as Composer in Residence at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival in 2015. His high