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Christian Muthspiel

Artist in Residence 1999-2000 and 2000-01

Christian Muthspiel was born in 1962 in Judenburg, Styria. He took his first piano lesson at the age of six; at 11, he took up the trombone. At the University of Music and Dramatic Arts Graz, Muthspiel studied trombone (classical and jazz), leaving prior to graduation. In 1987 and 1988, he received a scholarship to attend the School of Fine Arts in Banff, Canada.

He then began an extraordinarily extensive series of concert tours: his repertoire encompasses jazz, improvisation and New Music; his instruments are the trombone and piano; and he has performed in Europe, the US, Canada, Mexico, North Africa, Russia and Asia. Christian Muthspiel has appeared as a solo act and with numerous ensembles: he fronts C. Muthspiel & Motley Mothertongue, the Christian Muthspiel Trio, Octet Ost I, II, III and European Brass; he is co-leader of a duo with Wolfgang Muthspiel, Muthspiel-Peacock-Muthspiel-Motian and Dahinden-Muthspiel; and he has been a “sideman” with the Vienna Art Orchestra since 1991. With these diverse formations, he has appeared at numerous festivals including Vancouver, Banff, Toronto, Montreal, New York, Mexico City, Tokyo, London, Paris, Antwerp, The Hague, Helsinki, Berlin, Zurich, Rome, Warsaw, Moscow, Novosibirsk, Kiev, Budapest, Varna, Belgrade, Saalfelden, Wien Modern and Steirischer Herbst.

Christian Muthspiel has been awarded commissions to compose musical works by, among others, the Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum, Benjamin Schmid, the Tiroler Landestheater, Klangforum Wien, Steirischer Herbst and the Wiener Konzerthaus.

Recordings made with his brother Wolfgang have an important place in Christian Muthspiel’s discography. For example: CY (1998 lotus records), Muthspiel-Peacock-Muthspiel-Motian (1993 amadeo/Polygram), and Duo Due Tre (1990 amdeo/Polygram).