Stephanie Gurga, a versatile musician,

performs internationally on piano, harpsichord, organ and fortepiano, and additionally as an opera conductor. She studied piano at DePauw University in Indiana (USA) with Claude Cymerman, then at the Ecole Normale de Musique Alfred Cortot in Paris, finally specializing in early music at the Musikhochschule in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany. As a student of Prof. Dr. Robert Hill, she was awarded an Artist's Diploma in harpsichord performance, followed by a Master of Music in fortepiano performance in 2012 with the unanimous congratulations of the jury. At the same time, she had the privilege of additional studies in accompaniment of lied and opera with renowned professors like René Jacobs, Helmut Deutsch and Jendrik Springer (Wiener Staatsoper). 

 

Stephanie began conducting baroque operas in 2012 with the Ensemble Orquesta, continuing most recently with Così fan Tutte at Woodhouse Opera (2018) and Laika the space dog, by Russel Hepplewhite, for the Nouvel Opera Fribourg, Switzerland (2019). Laika will be performed again under her direction at the Opéra Comique in Paris, France, in April 2020. She has coached and performed other operas for the Nouvel Opéra Fribourg, including Shostakovich’s Moscou en Paradis, and Gerald Barry’s Importance of being Earnest, and will perform in their upcoming Rossini Barber of Seville.

 

Invited by festivals of international renown, Stephanie has participated in innumerable concerts as a soloist and in chamber music ensembles with performances at the Grand Auditorium of Lyon (FR), Palacìos das Artes (Belo Horizonte, Brazil), National Music Museum (South Dakota, USA), Ritratti festival (IT), Ticino Musica Festival Lugano (CH), Orecchio di Giano de Roma (Italy), Lauenen Chamber Concerts (CH), Associazione Mozart (Italy), the Swiss Chamber Concerts, the Grange Concert Series (Christ Church, Great Britain), University Artist Series (Johannesburg, South Africa), the Artists Festival in Istanbul (Turkey), the National Concert Hall (Taiwan), the Théâtre Athenée of Paris (FR), and Schloss Bad Krozingen (Germany). She is also an adjunct member of Renaud Capuçon’s “Lausanne Soloists”, and with them, has performed in some of Europe’s most prestigious venues, including 2019 concerts in la Roque d’Anthéron (France), and Graffenegg, Austria. 

 

As piano soloist, in 2019 she most recently performed the Philip Glass Tirol Piano Concerto, with the Hastings Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as on several occasions with the Orchestre de Chambre de la Gironde, under the direction of Scott Sandmeier. In 2020, she is engaged to play Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with the Prague Symphonic Ensemble, conducted by Jerôme Kuhn. She is regularly invited to play continuo for orchestras (Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra, European Concert, Geneva Chamber Orchestra, Ensemble Orquesta), under the direction of conductors such as John Nelson, Paul Goodwin and Michael Hofstetter. 

 

She collaborates with choirs including Laudate Deum (Lausanne), the Ensemble Vocal of Villars-sur-Glâne, and the Ensemble Vocal of Martigny, and the Hastings Philharmonic Choir.

 

Stephanie has been on staff as accompanist since 2010 at the HEMU "Vaud-Valais-Fribourg" in Lausanne and Sion (Switzerland), where she currently accompanies for violinist Janine Jansen.

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Stephanie is also organist at the Church of Saint-Guérin and Sacré Coeur in Sion (Switzerland).