Irène Schweizer (born in Schaffhausen on 2 June 1941; died 16 July 2024) was a Swiss jazz and free improvising pianist remembered for her outstanding versatility through a career of collaborations. In 2018, at the age of 76, she received Switzerland’s Grand Award for Music.

Schweizer performed and recorded numerous solo piano performances as well as performing as part of the Feminist Improvising Group, whose members included Lindsay Cooper, Maggie Nichols, Georgie Born and Sally Potter.

She also performed a series of duos with drummers Pierre Favre, Louis Moholo, Andrew Cyrille, Günter Sommer, Han Bennink, Hamid Drake, as well as in trio and quartet sessions with others, including Evan Parker or Peter Kowald.

One of her most enduring collaborations was with the improvising musician Rüdiger Carl.

Schweizer continued with an energetic programme throughout the first two decades of the 21st century, culminating in unaccompanied concerts at Lucerne’s Culture and Congress Centre (2005) and Zurich’s Tonhalle (2011), mixing originals with classic jazz pieces by Thelonious Monk, Jimmy Giuffre and Carla Bley.

In 2018, at the age of 76, she received Switzerland’s Grand Award for Music and a year later took part in a gig with Drake, released as a live album on Intakt as Celebration, before declining health forced her to retire in 2021, shortly after her 80th birthday.

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