BIOGRAPHY
The swiss harpist Marie Trottmann is active in a variety of fields, from chamber music to orchestra and improvisation, and has been teaching at the Musikakademie Basel music school (www.musikschule-basel.ch) since 2014. She lives with her family in the canton of Bern. She is a member of the Zurich-based ensemble Pyramide (www.ensemble-pyramide.ch) and plays or has played with numerous orchestras and ensembles in Switzerland and abroad (Oper Frankfurt (DE), Tiroler Festspiele Orchester (A), Camerata Bern, Sinfonieorchester Bern, Orchestre de Chambre fribourgeois, Sinfonietta Basel, Ensemble Instrumental neuchâtelois, Capriccio, Delirium, Diachronie, etc.). She has taken part in various chamber music festivals and given masterclasses in a variety of traditions, which is a constant source of enrichment for her (Academia Sighisoara (RO), Music Campus Balchik (BU), Shanghai Music Festival (CN), Autour de la harpe celtique (CH), Tiroler Festspiele Summer and Winter Festival (A), Waldenfels Sommerkonzerte (A), etc.).
She regularly creates pieces for contemporary composers and enjoys breaking down the boundaries between genres, although she retains a particular attachment to 20th-century music, which she explores particularly through her duo with the flautist Markus Brönnimann (markusbroennimann.com). She is also passionate about folk music for dancing, and arranges many traditional themes with her group Trellan (trellan.ch). She explores the art of the stage beyond the classical concert form with Laure-Anne Dayer (www.laure-anne-payot.com), thanks to their duo Les Cordes timbrées, which led to in-depth work with clown-comedian Pierre Miserez (www.pierre-miserez.ch), director of their show Smile. Her concerts are regularly recorded and broadcast on national radio stations (Kultur 2 and Espace 2). She trained with Line Gaudard at the Neuchâtel conservatory, then with Chantal Mathieu Balavoine at the Haute Ecole de Musique de Lausanne, where she obtained her Bachelor's degree with a prize for excellence.
She continued her studies with Françoise Verherve at the Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Künste in Frankfurt am Main, where she obtained a Master's degree in performance (orchestral specialization) and a Master's degree in pedagogy with top honors. She won first prize in the SSPM instrumental interpretation competition. She is regularly called upon as a jury member by the Concours suisse pour les Jeunesses musicales. Teaching is extremely close to her heart, and it is between performing, sharing with colleagues and teaching that she finds fulfilment. She has taken numerous masterclasses with musicians renowned in their fields, including Marie-Pierre Langlamet, Jana Bouskova, Michelle Vuillaume, Godelieve Schrama, Ana Margit Süss, Jacqueline Defossez-Gaudibert, Park Stickney (Jazzharp), Hans Koch, Martin Schütz and Freddy Studer (free improvisation), Tristan le Govic (Breton harp).
