Swiss pianist Florian Altwegg is a passionate soloist and chamber musician. He cultivates a repertory that includes rarely played and unknown composers and works, embracing a wide range between French baroque and contemporary Latin American music. The young musician creates distinctive concert experiences by connecting different epochs using thematic program formats.

Florian Altwegg was born in Biel/Bienne and grew up in a home in which chamber music was regularly rehearsed and performed. At the age of three, he discovered playing the piano on his father’s instrument by imitating heard melodies on the keyboard.

During several years, he then had piano lessons from Iris Haefely at the Music School of Biel/Bienne. His musical education continued in the promotion program for talented artists at Gymnasium Hofwil in Münchenbuchsee, simultaneously with undergraduate studies in the class of Pierre Sublet at the Bern University of Arts. After an interim phase of several years, during which he devoted himself to various activities mostly abroad, he completed his musical studies in the class of Wilhem Latchoumia at the Bern University of Arts in June 2020. He continued his studies with Karl-Andreas Kolly at the Zurich University of Arts where he obtained the soloist performance diploma with highest mark in 2022.

Among special prizes for outstanding interpretations of contemporary classical music, Florian Altwegg gained a first prize with the highest score at the Swiss Youth Music Competition in 2009 (Lugano, Switzerland), followed by successes at international piano competitions at the Béla Bartók Competition in Budapest (2019) and as a semi-finalist at the Premio „Silvio Bengalli“ in Italy (2019), at the Concurso de Vigo in Spain (2022), at the Schimmel piano competition in Germany (2022) and as a finalist at the Bechstein-Bruckner competition in Austria (2023). As a member of the Alas Piano Quartet, he won the special prize at the 1st chamber music competition Paul Juon in Switzerland (2023)

Florian Altwegg participated in master classes with significant personalities, such as Dmitri Bashkirov, Homero Francesch, Martin Hughes, Tobias Schabenberger, Michael Korstick, Fernando Viani, Denys Proshayev and Gerhard Vielhaber. His complementary private studies with Paul Coker had a significant influence on his musical development.

Florian Altwegg is especially interested in the music of the twentieth and twenty-first century as well as in composers of latin-speaking origins. Beside his dedication to classical music, he participates in projects within the area of experimental music and Latin Jazz.