The Summer Music Academy Bern is a supporting programme for young, national and international talents in the field of classical music. At the same time, the public is offered an attractive concert series with international musicians as well as young talents.
Reorganised and under new management, the Academy follows the former Academy format in Eywald. The Summer Music Academy Bern will take place for the first time at Villa Mettlen in Muri bei Bern from 4 - 18 August 2024. Located close to the capital and in a beautiful park, Villa Mettlen offers professionally equipped teaching and practice rooms as well as a concert hall and will become a true academy centre: in addition to the masterclasses, the library, the park and the joint dinners at the Villa offers the participants and professors a valuable opportunity to get in touch with like-minded people.
Pawel Mazurkiewicz and Caroline Komor founded the Summer Music Academy Bern association in 2024. As new co-directors, they bring the former Academy format founded by Pawel Mazurkiewicz in Eywald newly reorganised to Bern.
Pawel Mazurkiewicz, Professor at Bern University of the Arts. Piano studies in Warsaw (with Bronislawa Kawalla and Jan Ekier) and at the Bern University of the Arts with Tomasz Herbut (Tschumi Prize 2004). Winner of the "Prix Credit Suisse Jeunes Solistes 2003", the "National Chopin Competition Warsaw" and many other competition and recording prizes, which has enabled him to make a number of renowned international appearances as a soloist and chamber music partner. In 2020 he founded and directed the «Sommermusikakademie Eywald» (2020-23) in the Gantrisch region. He has been co-director since 2024 of the new founded «Summer Music Academy Bern».
Caroline Komor is an art historian and has worked in the cultural sector for many years in the fields of art history, cultural management and cultural promotion. On the organiser`s side, she worked as a production manager of the cultural centre "Dampfzentrale Bern" and in the management of the "Sommerakademie im Zentrum Paul Klee" Bern. She has been Project Manager for Culture at the City of Burgdorf since 2023. She took part in courses of the "Sommermusikakademie Eywald" and is member of the "Orchestra Tabula Musica" in Bern. Since 2024, she has been co-director of the newly founded "Summer Music Academy Bern".
During the Covid pandemic travel restrictions the Polish-Swiss pianist and professor at Bern University of the Arts, Pawel Mazurkiewicz, enabled students to take part in self-organised masterclasses in Eywald in the Gantrisch region. Started in 2020 as a summer learning programme for young, talented musicians the format has grown and has also attracted students from abroad. In addition to the masterclasses there was also a organised series of concerts for the public.
From 2024 the newly reorganised Academy will take place in Bern, offering a better accessibility for the public and a more central location for students.
The Summer Music Academy Bern is supported by a strong patronage of well-known personalities from the world of music:
Claude Eichenberger - mezzo-soprano, winner of the 2022 Music Prize of the Canton of Bern for her "local work on a global scale". She is a lecturer at Bern University of the Arts and a member of the ensemble at Bühnen Bern.
Rico Gubler - Rico Gubler who studied saxophone, composition and law, has been Head of the Department of Music at Bern University of the Arts since 2023. He was previously President of the Lübeck University of Music for nine years and was and is a member of numerous cultural policy committees in Switzerland and abroad. He can look back on an eventful concert and composition career in Switzerland and abroad and taught a saxophone class at the University of Music in Lugano and later at the University of Music Lübeck.
Tomasz Herbut - pianist, professor at Bern University of the Arts and president and artistic director of the Bern Chopin Society. Tomasz Herbut is invited as a juror to various competitions and gives masterclasses in Europe as well as in Asia and North and South America.
Bartek Nizioł - violinist, concertmaster at Zurich Opera House, professor at Bern University of the Arts. Bartek Niziol plays first violin in the Zurich-based "Valentin Berlinski Quartet", which was founded in 2010. In August 2011, he made his debut together with star pianist Martha Argerich at the renowned "Chopin and his Europe" music festival in Warsaw. He is President of the Henryk Wieniawski Musical Society, Poznań (Poland).
Kaspar Zehnder - conductor and flautist, Musical Director of the Bern Chamber Orchestra since 2024, chief conductor of the Hradec Králové Philharmonic Orchestra (Czech Republic) since 2018. He held the same position with the Biel Solothurn Symphony Orchestra between 2012 and 2022. He is Artistic Director of the KlanGantrisch Festival and held the same position at Murten Classics until 2022. He was previously Music Director at the Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern (2004-2012) and Principal Conductor of the Prague Philharmonia (2005-2008).
