DUO
The Negoïta–Ryser Duo explores the encounter between poetry and music, while inventing new forms for today’s Lied. Created in 2020 by Swiss-Romanian soprano Sophie Negoïta and pianist Jansen Ryser, the duo is distinguished by its ability to weave a vivid connection with the audience and to offer personal and striking interpretations of a varied repertoire, ranging from Mozart to Saariaho. Regularly invited to perform in Switzerland and abroad, they are also frequently heard on Swiss radio Espace 2.
Trained at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, the two musicians received valuable guidance from Barbara Bonney, Wolfgang Holzmair and Stephan Genz throughout their postgraduate studies in Lied Duo, as well as from Simon Lepper, Jan Schultsz and Claudio Martinez. Their Austrian experience led to the recording of their first CD, Miniature.
The year 2025 promises to be rich: after a recital in the Nouveaux Talents series, broadcast live from the Salle de musique de La Chaux-de-Fonds on Espace 2, the duo makes its debut at the International Chamber Music Festival of Iași in Romania. They are also among the duos selected for the LiedBasel Academy, where they take part in masterclasses with Patricia Petibon and James Baillieu, while reflecting on the place of Lied today. Their season also includes recitals at the Grand Théâtre de Genève, as well as performances in contemporary art spaces such as One gee in fog Geneva and Galerie Strates Lausanne.
In 2024, the release of their music video Allerseelen, directed by Benjamin Goubet, was acclaimed in both the Lied and film worlds: selected for the Côté Court Festival in Paris, this project illustrates their wish to build bridges between the arts. In the same spirit of combining tradition and innovation, the duo revisits Hugo Wolf’s Italienisches Liederbuch in a version for two Lied duos, alongside baritone Yannick Debus and pianist Dominic Chamot.
Having already performed at the Weekend Musical de Pully (WEMP), the Festival des Combins and the festival created by pianist Sylvie Courvoisier at the Plateforme 10 museum, Sophie Negoïta and Jansen Ryser continue their path in 2025 on Swiss and Spanish stages, notably at the MUSAG Festival in Granada and the Martes Musicales in Vitoria-Gasteiz.
DISCOGRAPHY
MINIATURE (2020)
Sophie Negoïta, Soprano | Jansen Ryser, Piano
Siren: Lilacs (Op.21, No.5) - Rachmaninoff
Dans un bois solitaire (K. 308) - Mozart
Verschwiegene Liebe - Wolf
Il vole - Poulenc
Wie bin ich froh! (Opus 25, No.1) - Webern
JANSEN RYSER
Born in 1994 in Lausanne, Jansen Ryser began playing the piano at the age of 5. A graduate of the Haute Ecole de Musique in Geneva and of the Juilliard School in New York thanks to the generosity of the Leenaards Foundation, he studied there with Matti Raekallio, Sylviane Deferne and Adrian Kreda. He received the 2017 Filipinetti Prize for the best master soloist. He perfected himself with great masters such as Paul Badura-Skoda, Ferenc Rados, Eberhard Feltz, Andreas Staier, Franz Helmerson, Nelson Goerner.
Winner of the Kiefer Hablitzel Göhner Music Prize, Jansen Ryser has performed across Europe as well as in the United States. Praised for his musicality, his playing has been described as "combining natural pianism, musical sensibility and poetic eloquence". Invited by numerous festivals, he has performed as a soloist and in chamber music at the Verbier Festival, Gstaad Menuhin Festival, Lavaux Classic Festival, Plovdiv International Chamber Music Festival, Les Jardins Musicaux de Cernier, Vienna Young Pianist, Art et Musique de Sierre, Opera Festival of Montperreux.
Playing regularly with an orchestra, Jansen Ryser made his debut at the age of fifteen on the prestigious stage of the Menuhin Festival in Gstaad and in 2014 at Victoria Hall.
A passionate chamber musician, Jansen Ryser has collaborated notably with Sylviane Deferne, François Guye, Anthony Fournier, Basile Ausländer and Uxia Martinez Botana. His long-standing collaboration with soprano Sophie Negoïta recently led them to stand out at the International Lili and Nadia Boulanger Competition in Paris. Jansen Ryser is the recipient of the Theodora J. Nicolas Piano Scholarship, as well as the Dénéréaz Foundation.