Silvan Loher

Silvan Loher is a Swiss art music composer, known for his vocal, chamber, and orchestral compositions, which have been recurrently aired on Swiss, British, Italian and European public radio, and favourably reviewed in the Swiss national press. Loher's musical style has been described as differentiated and delicate,

Career

Loher's compositions are often designed for period instruments and voices. De Swaen(Amsterdam), Voces Suaves (Basel), Media Res (Basel), and Paulus Barokk(Oslo). In 2013, his Clarinet Quintet won a jury's special prize at the VII edition of the " ... a Camillo Togni" contest in Brescia. and the Swiss Chamber Music Festival in Adelboden(2020).

His music has also been performed in concerts in Brescia (2013), Weil am Rhein(2014) Cremona (2016), Fribourg(2017), and Adelboden(2020). and the European EBU. Together with Loher as a composer, this work was accomplished with participation of the writer Ursula Haas, the violinist Helena Winkelman, and the jazz pianist Thomas Silvestri. The album includes songs for voice and piano comprising poems by the German-speaking Mascha Kaleko and by Walt Whitman, interpreted by Silke Gäng (mezzo-soprano) and Marco Scilironi (piano). The "strict tonality" of the songs, and their reminiscence to chansons from the early twentieth century have been noted. In a comment about this work, music producer Valerio Benz from the Swiss Radio has suggested a resemblance to the styles of Othmar Schoeck or Benjamin Britten.

Loher is a member of the Swiss Association of Musicians (Sonart), and of the Norwegian Society of Composers. A lengthy interview with the composer was published by International Arts Manager magazine in June 2018.

Works A selection of works by the composer is listed below:

Quintet for clarinet and strings (2009/2012). Ten Poems by Walt Whitman (2012-2013), which includes the pieces To You, As If a Phantom Caress’d Me, Aroused and Angry, A Prairie Sunset, A Clear Midnight, Soon Shall The Winter’s Foil Be Here, Joy Shipmate Joy!, To The States, Of Him I Love Day and Night, and Tramp a Perpetual Journey. Partita a tre violini senza basso (2016), Ricercar (Andante) – Corale (Largo) – Finale (Allegro risoluto), work commissioned by Ensemble Il Continuo. De Profundis, cantata for singers and baroque orchestra (2018). A composition exploring relations between dark and bright and their transitions, using complex chords of dissonance and euphony. Ungeheuer ist viel und nichts ungeheurer als der Mensch (2018), for soprano solo, 2 choirs and baroque orchestra, a motet based on a text from Sophocles' Antigone. Sonata for soprano and organ (2020), A piece comprising poems by Walt Whitman and by the Finnish poet Edith Södergran which is said to use an intense musical language, magically combining drama, menace and confidence, with tonal poetry. Krusiduller (2020), for violin and piano.