Benjamin Engeli

Benjamin Engeli, a Swiss pianist whose work spans an unusually wide spectrum, moves fluidly between Beethoven, new music, and an inventive project centered on Gershwin, while maintaining an active role as a piano instructor. Born in 1978 in the compact Swiss town of Kreuzlingen, he was raised in a household steeped in music. Although he tested several instruments, formal piano study began only at fifteen with Adrian Oetiker. Swift advancement followed, bringing lessons with András Schiff, Maurizio Pollini, and Lazar Berman. At the Musikakademie Basel he pursued concurrent training in piano and French horn, yet after transferring for graduate study at the Zurich University of the Arts with Homero Francesch he concentrated exclusively on the piano. Upon completing his degree in 2003 he founded the Tecchler Trio, which captured the 2007 ARD Music Competition. That same year Engeli entered the Gershwin Piano Quartet, an ensemble of four pianos devoted to arrangements of Gershwin rather than a conventional piano-and-strings configuration. He contributed several of those arrangements, some of which appear on the group’s 2010 release. The quartet enjoyed international reach, performing in China, Brazil, and the Middle East, while Engeli has appeared as soloist or teacher across North and South America, Australia, and India. In 2010 he launched a solo recording career with Beethoven piano sonatas issued on the Solo Musica label. Further recordings have appeared on NEOS, Claves, Challenge Classics, and Ars Produktion; he returned to Solo Musica in 2018 to accompany Astrid and Sonja Leutwyler on Hymne à la Beauté. In 2013 he participated in a chamber group that introduced new pieces by Tobias PM Schneid. Engeli taught piano for eight years at the Musikhochschule Basel before accepting a professorship at the Landeskonservatorium Feldkirch in Austria.