Edward Rushton & Kathrin Hottiger
Biography Edward Rushton & Kathrin Hottiger
Kathrin Hottiger
is a Swiss soprano. She studied with Liliane Zürcher at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts. Since graduating, she has continued her studies with Malin Hartelius. Kathrin Hottiger won third prize at the 2018 «Pietro Antonio Cesti» international competition for baroque opera in Innsbruck, Austria, and was a semi-finalist at the «Neue Stimmen» competition in 2019. She received a scholarship from Migros Kulturprozent in 2017 and 2018. In various master classes, Kathrin Hottiger has worked with Bernarda Fink, Edith Mathis, Ton Koopman, and Evelyn Tubb.
In the summer of 2022, Kathrin Hottiger performed the role of Zelmira in Joseph Haydn’s opera «Armida» at the Bregenz Festival. Further highlights of her career have included engagements in Moscow, Washington D.C. and Jerusalem. She has worked with ensembles such as the Thomanerchor and Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, the musica viva orchestra Moscow, Camerata Bern, the Orchestre de chambre de Lausanne, the Südwestdeutsche Philharmonie Konstanz, and the argovia philharmonic under the baton of Rune Bergmann and Jan Willem de Vriend.
In 2019, she sang the role of Eurydice in Gluck’s opera «Orphée et Eurydice» at the Tchaikovsky concert hall in Moscow and in the Opera of Komi. In 2020, she gave her debut as Adele («Die Fledermaus») at the Neues Theater in Dornach and in 2021 she sang Fortuna, Pallade and Damigella in Monteverdi’s «L’incoronazione di Poppea» at Waldegg Castle. The CD produced during this production was released by Rondeau Production in Leipzig and is listed in the longlist 1/2023 of the German Record Critics in two categories. Further engagements include the roles of Amore («Orfeo ed Euridice»), Venus («Venus and Adonis»), and Gretel («Hänsel und Gretel») at the Luzerner Theater, Switzerland.
Kathrin Hottiger also enjoys singing in a chamber music setting. She regularly performs with the ensemble I Pizzicanti, based in Basel, which specialises in early music. In addition, she has a special love of the Lied, in particular of French and Scandinavian repertoire. Since spring 2022 she has been making music with the American-French pianist Pierre-Nicolas Colombat. Since 2017 she has given regular recitals as a duo with Edward Rushton. Their first CD Mon amie la lune will be released in February 2023 under the Prospero label.
Edward Rushton
studied piano and composition at Chetham's School of Music in Manchester, Cambridge University and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. After a two-year stint as a répétiteur in Münster, Westphalia, Rushton moved to Switzerland to study song interpretation in Irwin Gage's master class. In 2001 he graduated with distinction. Since 2000 Edward Rushton has been a lecturer in Lied Accompaniment at the Lucerne School of Music.
As a Lied accompanist he has performed in Germany, Great Britain, Belgium, Poland, France, Italy, Greece and Switzerland, with singers such as Juliane Banse, Sybille Diethelm, Melanie Forgeron, Annina Haug, Jeannine Hirzel, Kathrin Hottiger, Lena Kiepenheuer, Theresa Kronthaler, Yvonne Naef, Robin Adams, Richard Burkhard, Michael Mogl, René Perler, Jakob Pilgram, Lázsló Polgár, Jonathan Sells and Simon Wallfisch. He also plays in various chamber music formations.
He has recorded several CDs for the Nimbus, Resonus Classics, BIS, Prospero, Lyrita, CPO, Delphian, Musiques Suisses, Musicaphon and Guild Music labels. → Discography
His fondness for the song repertoire and his desire to spread it further prompted him to launch the project "Besuch der Lieder" in 2015, with the purpose of staging song recitals in private rooms in Switzerland together with a select ensemble of singers and pianists.
Edward Rushton is also in demand as a composer. Numerous ensembles in Britain, Germany, France and Switzerland have commissioned and performed pieces by him. His operas, most to libretti by Dagny Gioulami, have been heard in London, Birmingham, Zurich, Hanover, Kassel, Bregenz and Philadelphia, among others. His works for voice and piano form a special focus of his creative work: he has composed more than thirty song cycles and individual songs.
Rushton is a laureate of the Conrad Ferdinand Meyer Foundation 2020.
