Mats Scheidegger

Mats Scheidegger was born in Baden, Switzerland. Since completing his studies in guitar at Winterthur Conservatory and Bern School of Music (soloists diploma cum laude) and under David Starobin in New York in the eighties he has been primarily engaged with the interpretation of contemporary music. Scheidegger has a repertoire which brings together the most important works of the twentieth century and allows him the privilege of pursuing an active concert career performing solo at such festivals as the Lincoln Center Festival New York, Festival D'Automne Paris, ENO London, Lucerne Festival, Wien Modern, Festspiele Berlin and the RuhrTriennale. 1997 - Mats Scheidegger performs Luciano Berio's guitar concert for the first time in Switzerland. 1998 - World Premiere of Sam Hayden's large-scale guitar solo 'Axe(s)' at the International Gaudeamus New Musik Week in Amsterdam 2000 - Educational visit to Mongolia 2001 - World premiere of the guitar concert written especially for him by the Swiss composer Nadir Vassena in Stuttgart 2004 - World premiere of Brian Ferneyhough's well-received opera 'Shadowtime' at the Munich Biennale in which Scheidegger performs the solo guitar Further innumerable world premiere performances, an ever-increasing number of concerts with live electronic music and many radio and CD recordings round off his artistic activities. The drive to be actively involved in the development of music and to further the possibilities of instruments has led to many intensive collaborations; the composers Helmut Lachenmann, Heinz Holliger, Brian Ferneyhough, Nadir Vassena, Pier-Luigi Billone and Sam Hayden are mentionable examples. Future projects, besides further world premiere concerts, include the production of a debut solo CD and an interdisciplinary collaboration with the Italian dancer Valeria Magli. Scheidegger has more recently shown an intense interest in the romantic guitar with a transcription of, and concert activities with, 'Die Schöne Müllerin' by Franz Schubert. Creating concert programmes is another passion of Mats Scheidegger: he was co-founder of the 'Gruppe für Neue Musik GNOM Baden' and was actively involved in the development of the 1998 'Tonkünstlerfest', he has been artistic director of the 'Tage für Neue Musik Zürich' festival since 1998. Mats Scheidegger receives regular sponsorship from the canton of Aargau. He lives as a freelance musician and pedagogue in Zurich.