Andreas Schaerer (born 17 December 1976) is a Swiss jazz vocalist and composer, performing internationally, and an academic teacher. He founded the sextet 'Hildegard Lernt Fliegen' and collaborated with notable international musicians, including
Bobby McFerrin
Robert Keith McFerrin Jr. (born March 11, 1950) is an American singer, songwriter, and conductor (music), conductor. His Vocal pedagogy, vocal techniques include singing fluidly but with quick and considerable jumps in Pitch (music), pitch—fo ...
for the improvised opera ''Bobble''.
Life and work
Born in
Visp
Visp (; ; ) is the capital of the district of Visp in the canton of Valais in Switzerland.
Geography
Visp lies in the Rhône valley, at the confluence of the Vispa and the Rhône, west of Brig-Glis.
Visp has an area, , of . Of this a ...
, Schaerer grew up in
Emmental
The Emmental (, ) is a valley in west-central Switzerland, forming part of the canton of Bern. It is a hilly landscape comprising the basins of the rivers Emme and Ilfis. The region is mostly devoted to farming, particularly dairy farming. The ...
and Wallis. He studied at the ''Lehrerseminar'' (teachers' seminary) in
Hofwil Hofwil is a village in the canton of Bern, Switzerland, part of the municipality of Münchenbuchsee.
The village of Hofwil was originally part of the lands owned by the Münchenbuchsee Commandery, a medieval commandery of the Knights Hospitaller i ...
, and received the patent for primary school and ''
Realschule
Real school (, ) is a type of secondary school in Germany, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. It has also existed in Croatia (''realna gimnazija''), the Austrian Empire, the German Empire, Denmark and Norway (''realskole''), Sweden (''realskola''), F ...
'' in 1997. He became guitar player for the
punk
Punk or punks may refer to:
Genres, subculture, and related aspects
* Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres
* Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...
band ''Hektor lebt''. Schaerer travelled extensively in South America. From 2000 and 2006, he studied at the
Hochschule der Künste Bern
__NOTOC__
The Bern Academy of Arts () is an art school with locations in Bern and Biel/Bienne. It was created in 2003 from the merger of the University of Music and Theatre and the School of Design, Art and Conservation. The educational institution ...
, voice with and Denise Bregnard, improvisation with Andy Scherrer, and composition with ,
Christian Henking
Christian Henking (born 14 January 1961) is a Swiss composer, conductor and choir leader.
Life
Henking was born in Basel in 1961. He graduated from the in 1981. From 1981 to 1989 he studied music theory with Theo Hirsbrunner at the University ...
and .
He founded his own projects, such as the sextet ' (Hildegard learns to fly), touring a Europe up to Russia (''Cinema Hildegard'', 2010), and also to China. He writes for the sextet "skurrile Programme zwischen Kunstlied und aberwitzig-vertrackten Spielereien" (between art song and playfulness). He improvises in duos, with the bassist and with the percussionist . He has performed in trio with Martin Eberle (born 1981, trumpet and flugelhorn) and the guitarist Peter Rom (born 1972), and with Christoph Steiner and Claude Meier (''Das Beet''). Schaerer is also active as a
studio musician
A session musician (also known as studio musician or backing musician) is a musician hired to perform in a recording session or a live performance. The term sideman is also used in the case of live performances, such as accompanying a record ...
and composer in a variety of styles including free style and
hip-hop
Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hi ...
, and writing music for computer games and animated films.
In 2009 and 2010, he collaborated with
Bobby McFerrin
Robert Keith McFerrin Jr. (born March 11, 1950) is an American singer, songwriter, and conductor (music), conductor. His Vocal pedagogy, vocal techniques include singing fluidly but with quick and considerable jumps in Pitch (music), pitch—fo ...
for the improvised opera ''Bobble'' in Basel and Moscow. He has appeared with
Soweto Kinch
Soweto Kinch (born 10 January 1978) is a British jazz saxophonist and rapper.
Biography
Born in 1978 in London, England, to a Barbadian father, playwright Don Kinch, and British-Jamaican actress Yvette Harris, Soweto Kinch began playing ...
,
Christy Doran
Christy Doran (born 1949) is a jazz guitarist born in Dublin, Ireland, and raised in Lucerne, Switzerland.
Doran founded OM with Fredy Studer, Urs Leimgruber, and Bobby Burri in the 1970s; this ensemble recorded for ECM. He and Studer also work ...
s ''New Bag'', ', Kaspar Ewald's ''Exorbitantes Kabinett'', , Colin Vallon, Elina Duni and
Joe Haider
Joe Haider (born January 3, 1936, in Darmstadt) is a German pianist and jazz educator.
Life and works
Haider performed as an amateur musician in the region Stuttgart between 1954 and 1959 and studied at Richard Strauss Conservatory in Munich fr ...
. In 2017, he invited by
Michael Wollny
Michael Wollny (born 25 May 1978) is a German jazz pianist and a professor at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Leipzig. He has played with international musicians including Joachim Kühn, Tamar Halperin, Marius Neset, Andreas Schaerer, Émil ...
, then artist in residence of the
Rheingau Musik Festival
The (RMF) is an international summer music festival in Germany, founded in 1987. It is mostly for classical music, but includes other genres. Concerts take place at culturally important locations, such as Eberbach Abbey and Schloss Johannisberg, ...
, to play at the Kurhaus Wiesbaden a concert with also saxophonist
Émile Parisien
Émile Parisien (born 12 October 1982) is a French soprano and alto saxophonist, jazz musician, and composer.
Career
Émile Parisien entered the fifth class at the age of 11 in the first class of Marciac's ''College de jazz'', where he studie ...
and accordionist
Vincent Peirani
Vincent Peirani (born 24 April 1980) is a French jazz accordionist, vocalist and composer who has played internationally, collaborating with Denis Colin, François Jeanneau, Youn Sun Nah, Émile Parisien, Michel Portal, Louis Sclavis, and Mich ...
. A reviewer noted that he is interested, as the others, to expand the spectrum of his "instrument", and described his excentric-capricious vocal improvisations bordering percussive sounds, and a sometime "sacred" touch in the high register ("exzentrisch-kapriziösen Vokalimprovisationen auf der Grenze zum pointiert perkussionistischen Geräuschemacher über eine mitunter sakrale Anmutung in den Höhen").
Schaerer co-founded in 2007 with Marc Stucki and Benedikt Reising the ''Berner Jazzwerkstatt'' (Bern jazz workshop). He has taught at the Hochschule der KünsteHochschule der Künste Bern /ref> in Bern from 2009, jazz vocals, improvisation and ensemble playing.
Awards
In 2008, his sextet ''Hildegard Lernt Fliegen'' was awarded the ZKB-Jazzpreis. The band has been sponsored from 2010 by
Pro Helvetia
The foundation Pro Helvetia is a public foundation of Switzerland, which supports artists, promotes Swiss culture and art abroad. It is responsible for major international cultural event exhibitions. The foundation promotes cultural dialogue of t ...
. The Album ''Arcanum'' with Niggli was in 2014 on the list of the best of the
Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik Preis is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Alfred Preis (1911–1993), Austrian architect
* Ellen Preis (Ellen Müller-Preis) (1912–2007), German-born Austrian Olympic champion foil fencer
* Mary Louise Preis (born 1941), ...
.
Schaerer has received the European Musician award from the
Montrouge
Montrouge () is a Communes of France, commune in the southern Parisian suburbs, located from the centre of Paris. It is one of the most densely populated municipalities in Europe. After a long period of decline, the population has increased agai ...
.
Vocal technique
Schaerer is known for his eclectic array of vocal styles, and is noted for incorporating multiple techniques into one song. He is noted for his extensive scat singing, and his wide variety of vocal timbres which include opera, crooning, soul, and
sprechgesang
(, "spoken singing") and (, "spoken voice"), more commonly known as speak-singing in English, are expressionist musical vocal techniques between singing and speaking. Though sometimes used interchangeably, is directly related to the operatic re ...
. He is also noted for his usage of
beatboxing
Beatboxing (also, and sometimes, called beat boxing) is a form of vocal percussion primarily involving the art of mimicking drum machines (usually a Roland TR-808, TR-808), using one's mouth, lips, tongue, and voice.Mouth trumpet technique, into his songs, harmonizing with the horn sections, of his groups.
Discography
* ''Hildegard Lernt Fliegen'', mit Roman Bieri, Katrin Lo Cher, Matthias Wenger, Patrick Schnyder, Marco Mueller, Christoph Steiner, 2007 ()
* ''Vom fernen Kern der Sache'', with , , Matthias Wenger, Patrick Schnyder, Marco Muller, Christoph Steiner, 2009 (Unit)
* ''schibboleth'', with Bänz Oester, 2010) (Unit)
* ''At the Age of Six I Wanted to Be a Cook'', Rom/Schaerer/Eberle, 2013 (Unit)