BIOGRAPHY

Pianist and composer Adrian Frey is a musician with a wide range of activities, ranging from jazz to Latin American to experimental music.

After first musical experiences with jazz and improvisation and classical chamber music in the family, he played at the Zurich Jazz Festival at the age of 19. 

He then attended the Zurich Conservatory (majoring in piano, minor in double bass).  Further studies at the New England Conservatory in Boston, USA, with such influential personalities of modern jazz as the pianist Ran Blake, the composer George Russell or the drummer Bob Moses influenced the musician in his quest for his own music.

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He later deepened his knowledge of Latin American music with a four-month stay in Havana, Cuba, taking percussion and piano lessons.

In 1999 he spent three months as a fellow at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris.

With the release of his debut CD "Adrian Frey Trio" in 1995 on "unit records", with Rätus Flisch (b) and Tony Renold (dr), Adrian Frey established himself as a pianist and composer with a fresh, individual voice. 

The second trio CD “The Sign” followed in 2001 with Dominique Girod on double bass and Dominik Burkhalter on drums.
 

Since 1997  AF also performed again and again with his septet. A CD was released with this group in 2004, which contains exclusively their own compositions.

In 2010 the new trio CD "no flags" (unit records) with Patrick Sommer (double bass) and Tony Renold (drums) was released.

In autumn 2002 Adrian Frey undertook  with the  American singer Peggy Chew went on a concert tour to China lasting several weeks. Tours in the USA (2006) and in China (2007, 2009, with Willy Kotoun, 2014) followed with this group "Sonic Calligraphy".

In 2004 the pianist was a member of the Big Band of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). In the same year, the composition "Objects & Moments" for jazz trio and string orchestra was performed in various cities in Switzerland.

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In addition to concert activities in Switzerland, there are appearances abroad, for example with his trio in New York as part of the "Zurich meets New York" festival, as well as with Sonic Calligraphy at the JZ Music Festival in Shanghai and at the Leung Ping-kwan Poetry Retrospective in Hong Kong Kong and at Voxfest in New York in 2017.
Other recent highlights include an appearance at the "Herbst in der Helferei" festival in Zurich with a string orchestra and a concert with the legendary New York singer Jay Clayton for the reopening of the Mehrspur music club in the Toni area of the Zurich University of the Arts.

A French critic wrote: "The pianist Adrian Frey knows how to play a  Make the piano sing and tell stories." (Jazz Hot, France)
 

  Adrian Frey teaches ear training, improvisation and piano at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK).