"Wandering through the history of piano music from its earliest to its most recent can be done excellently on the new grand pianos of C. Bechstein. This is unique and invaluable, especially if one wants to make use of all the new insights into music making."
Jan Schultsz
Jan Schultsz is one of the leading pianists and conductors of our time and professor for chamber music and Lied accompaniment at the Conservatory Basel in Switzerland.
Born in 1965 in Amsterdam Jan Schultsz received his first piano lessons at the age of 4 and his first horn lessons at the age of 10. He studied both instruments in Amsterdam and Basel. As a pianist he performs is regularly with singers and instrumentalists all over Europe and since 1996, when he appeard for the first time in Carnegie Hall, also in the USA. As a soloist he performed with the major orchestras in Basel and several chamber orchestras. Additionaly he was leading classes at the Bruckner Conservatory in Linz.
Jan Schultsz completed his education as an conductor in Basel, Bern and Zürich under Horst Stein, Manfred Honeck, Wilfried Boettcher and Ralf Weikert. Additionaly he participated in numerous conducting classes (amongst others with Jorma Panula) and studied at the Conservatory in St. Petersburg (Russia). He is winner of several prices and scholarships.
As a conductor Jan Schultsz worked with many European Orchestras, among them the Tonhalleorchester Zürich, the Sinfonieorchester Basel, the Mozarteum-Orchester Salzburg or the Orchestre de Chambre de Neuchâtel, of which he was musical director from 1999 until 2009, and worked with soloists such as Khatia Buniatishvili, Renaud Capuçon and Gaultier Capuçon. He is very enthusiastic about working with youth orchestras and conservatory orchestras. Jan Schultsz has acted as musical director at the Norske Opera in Oslo (Sweden) and was guest conductor at the Hungarian State Opera of Budapest and the Opéra Royal de Wallonie in Liège. Until 2012 he was conductor and musical director of the Opera Festival St. Moritz. Since 2008 he is director of the Engadin Festival, which resonates beyond Switzerland through its exciting programs.
Jan Schultsz participated in numerous radio and TV productions and recorded several CDs. His recording of Franz Schubert's "Die schöne Müllerin" with Werner Güra (tenor) was honored with the Diapasson d'or. This CD as well as his performance of "Dichterliebe" and "Liederkreis" by Schumann was recorded on a C. Bechstein grand piano. From his earliest years Schultsz is a close friend of Bechstein.
