The Career of Walter GrimmerAs a musician
Walter Grimmer began violoncello lessons as a child, under the guidance of Franz Hindermann, himself a former pupil of Hugo Becker. In 1952, Grimmer entered Richard Sturzenegger’s class at the Zurich Musikhochschule (Music Faculty). Sturzenegger had been taught by Reitz, Alexanian and Feuermann, and he was renowned for having been the first to edit the original version of Boccherini’s Concerto in B-major. Grimmer graduated with the National Music Teaching and Soloist Diploma, after which he spent three years in Maurice Gendron’s Master Class in Saarbrucken and Paris. Grimmer rounded off his studies with Master Courses in Rome, under Enrico Mainardi, in Zermatt, under Pablo Casals and in Cologne, under Siegfried Palm.
1965 brought a breakthrough for Grimmer as he made his debut as a cello soloist in Berne. He was immediately signed up by Paul Klecki and Charles Dutoit as cello soloist in the Berne Symphonic Orchestra. At the same time he obtained a teaching post at the Berne Conservatoire. During this period, he and his friends founded the Berne Camerata which shortly became a famous ensemble.
In 1971, Grimmer left the orchestra to join the newly-founded Berne String Quartet. Over a period of almost fifteen years, he played all existing compositions for string quartets and also first-ever performances of ground-breaking new quartet works by Heinz Holliger, Klaus Huber, Brian Ferneyhough, Helmut Lachenmann, Isang Yun, Wolfgang Rihm and other leading composers.
At the same time, Grimmer expanded his prowess as a soloist. He not only mastered the classical concerto repertory, but was also the first to perform Isang Yun’s Cello Concerto for Swiss and Korean audiences, Lutoslawski’s Cello Concerto, in Switzerland. In October 2002, Grimmer gave the world premiere of Klaus Huber's chamber concerto, ...die Seele muss vom Reittier steigen…", in Donaueschingen, immediately followed by the first performance in Paris, Lucerne, Berlin, Witten, Zurich, Warsaw, Cairo, Vienna..
Grimmer left the string quartet in 1985 so as to turn his full attention to other forms of chamber music. Until 1995, he was part of a trio with Igor Ozim and Ilse Dorati-von Alpenheim, which performed and recorded all of Mozart’s and Schubert’s works. The most recent recordings are of the two Brahms Sonatas with Stefan Fahrni, a CD "Portrait of Walter Grimmer" and a second recording devoted to works by Isang Yun. These are shortly to be followed by a complete recording of Reger's four Duo Sonatas.
Recordings: RCA, Wergo, Col legno, Accord/Universal, Bis, Jecklin, Grammont, Cappriccio,
As a teacher
Walter Grimmer began violoncello lessons as a child, under the guidance of Franz Hindermann, himself a former pupil of Hugo Becker. In 1952, Grimmer entered Richard Sturzenegger’s class at the Zurich Musikhochschule (Music Faculty). Sturzenegger had been taught by Reitz, Alexanian and Feuermann, and he was renowned for having been the first to edit the original version of Boccherini’s Concerto in B-major. Grimmer graduated with the National Music Teaching and Soloist Diploma, after which he spent three years in Maurice Gendron’s Master Class in Saarbrucken and Paris. Grimmer rounded off his studies with Master Courses in Rome, under Enrico Mainardi, in Zermatt, under Pablo Casals and in Cologne, under Siegfried Palm.
Grimmer acquired the post of cello teacher at the Berne Musikhochschule in 1965. Up until 1985, in collaboration with first Max Rostal and then Igor Ozim, he was in charge of the Stringed Instrument Department at this renowned school of music.
From 1985 till 2002, a professorship at the Zurich Musikhochschule was conferred on Grimmer: a class of budding young cellists from all over the world and a chamber music class. Today, several generations of outstanding cellists have Grimmer to thank for their multifaceted music training. Many of his former students are soloists, orchestra members or have themselves become cello teachers: Thomas Demenga, Beat Schneider, Rafael Rosenfeld, Sébastien Singer, Benjamin Nyffenegger, Andrej Melik, Martin Jaggi, Mario Rio, Didier Poskin, David Reitz, David Bertschinger, Gerhard Oetiker...
Grimmer gives select master courses: several times at the Centre Acanthes in Avignon, France; the Zulia University in Maracuibo, Venezuela; the Festival des Arcs, France; the Académie d’été de Nice, France; MusicAlp Courchevel, France, the International Summer Academy, Salzburg, Austria, the Tongyeong International Music Academy... He is regularly invited to teach at the Conservatory in Cairo and Alexandria (Egypt).
Walter Grimmer edited Maurice Gendron’s artistic testament, The Art of Cello Playing, published in french, german ang english by Schott Music International.
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