Alexandre Foster & Heinz Holliger
Biography Alexandre Foster & Heinz Holliger
Alexandre Foster
The Canadian cellist Alexandre Foster is known for his unique approach to music-making and his high versatility of playing. Over the years, he has performed as a modern cellist as well as a baroque cellist with leading artists of both disciplines in some of the most prestigious halls in Europe (Casa da Música, KKL, Herkulesaal, a.o.).
A devoted chamber musician, he has been sharing the stage with musician such as Anton Kernjak, Silvia Simionescu, Maurice Steger, Sini Simonen, Christine Busch, Els Biesemans, Krystian Bezuidenhout, among others.
He is also a founding member of the Calvino Trio, with whom he has already given concerts all over the world. The Calvino Trio won the first prize "Norbert Schenkel" at the Jeunesse Musicale Competition 2015 in Switzerland and the first prize "Orpheus" at the Swiss Chamber Music Competition 2016.
Furthermore, Alexandre Foster is violoncello solo of the baroque ensemble "Les Passions de l'Ame" (Bern) and since 2019 a member of the Basel String Quartet.
His discography includes the first recording of Beethoven's piano quartets on period instruments (Dynamik) and the complete recording of Biber's Harmonia Artificioso-Ariosa (Deutsche Harmonia Mundi), which received worldwide critical acclaim. In 2010 he performed the world premiere of Hermann Keller's Sonata, which was recorded by Radio SWR 2.
His latest recording of music for solo cello (Veress, Wyttenbach, Holliger, Moser, Ligeti, Kurtag, Demenga), with the collaboration of Heinz Holliger, will be released by Prospero in early 2023.
His teachers include Thomas Demenga, Conradin Brotbek, Anton Kernjak, Rainer Schmidt and Ferenc Rados. Alexandre Foster's fascination with historically informed performance practice led him to the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel, where he graduated in 2014 with a Master of Arts in Early Music with Christophe Coin (Baroque cello).
Alexandre Foster taught for several years at the Hochschule der Künste Bern and at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Stuttgart. Since 2017 he has been a cello teacher at the Konservatorium Bern. He is also regularly invited to teach master classes throughout Europe.
