Ensemble Variante

Ensemble Variante, music through stories

Passionate about chamber music, pianist Julie Fortier and horn player, pianist and composer Christophe Sturzenegger created Duo sforzando in 2000, then, wishing to share the stage with other musicians, actors and other artists, Ensemble Variante in 2008.

Each year they produce original musical shows, the aim of which is to present classical music differently, in order to make it accessible to everyone, especially children.

They regularly play as a piano duo and Christophe's double “instrumental hat” allows them to invite the horn into the middle of a program!

We will note a memorable Carnival of the Animals at the Bach festival in Drôme in the company of Frédéric Lodéon, as well as numerous solo concerts with orchestra: Concerti for 2 pianos by Bach, Mozart, Poulenc and Bruch.

They recorded two CDs: “Sturzenegger, composers and performers” and “Discovering the last Russian romantic, Reinhold Glière”, in which they alternate duets for 4 hands, horn and piano, and solo piano.

Julie Fortier is a piano teacher at the Geneva Conservatory of Music, an accompanist at the Haute Ecole de Musique de Genève and artistic director of the Ensemble Variante.

Christophe Sturzenegger teaches complementary piano, harmonization and improvisation at the Haute Ecole de Musique de Genève and is a member of the Geneva Brass.

As a composer, he is published by Woodbrass-music and Klarthe, and has around fifty works in his catalog (notably commissions for the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Orchestre de chambre de Genève, Ensemble symphonique de Neuchâtel, Orchestre régional de Normandie, soloists and international competitions in Finlande and South Korea).