{{Short description|Swiss composer and clarinettist}} '''Jürg Frey''' (born 15 May 1953) is a Swiss composer and clarinettist. He is a member of the Wandelweiser Group.
== Biography == Jürg Frey was born in 1953 in Aarau, Switzerland. He studied clarinet in Concervatoire de Musique de Genève, composition under Urs Peter Schneider in Bern and trained in Basel as a teacher of the Alexander Technique. Frey co-founded the Lenzburg Music Forum, and has been artistic director of the Aarau concert series 'Moments Musicaux' for more than ten years.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.musinfo.ch/en/personen/komponisten/?pers_id=11&abc=F|title=SME: Composers|last=Lustenberger|first=SME/EMS/Theo|website=www.musinfo.ch|access-date=2018-08-10}}</ref>
Frey has been invited to workshops as a visiting composer at the Universität der Künste Berlin, the Universität Dortmund, Northwestern University and CalArts.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.wandelweiser.de/juerg-frey.html|title=wandelweiser - Jürg Frey|last=Reserved|first=www.wandelweiser.de 2004, Haan All Rights|website=www.wandelweiser.de|access-date=2018-08-10}}</ref> In 1991 he was prize winner at the Boswil International Composition Seminar.
Frey has acted as a mentor at recent composer meet composer workshops including fellow Wandelweiser composers/artists Antoine Beuger, Emmanuelle Waeckerle, Marianne Schuppe, and Joachim Eckl.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.wandelweiser.de/composers_meet_composers/|title=COMPOSERS MEET COMPOSERS|website=www.wandelweiser.de|access-date=2019-07-05}}</ref>
== Music == Jürg Frey’s music is characterized by sparse, quiet, soundscapes. In a review in The Guardian, Frey has been described as a “master of calm instrumental textures… who explores silence as much as sound and writes egoless music that feels as though it’s always existed”.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/dec/17/jurg-frey-third-string-quartet-bozzini-quartet-cd-review-jurg-frey|title=Jürg Frey: Third String Quartet CD review – an audaciously fragile performance|last=Molleson|first=Kate|date=2015-12-17|work=The Guardian|access-date=2018-08-10}}</ref> Writing in ''The New Yorker'', Alex Ross compared Frey’s music to a “Mahler Adagio suspended in zero gravity”.<ref>{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/09/05/silence-overtakes-sound-for-the-wandelweiser-collective|title=The Composers of Quiet|magazine=The New Yorker|access-date=2018-08-10}}</ref>
== References == {{reflist}}
== External links == *[https://www.soundexpanse.com/rs2-frey/ Resource guide to the music of Jürg Frey] *[https://www.wandelweiser.de/juerg-frey.html Jürg Frey’s page on the Wandelweiser website] *[https://www.juergfrey.com Jürg Frey's website]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Frey, Jurg}} Category:Swiss classical composers Category:Swiss male composers Category:Swiss classical clarinetists Category:1953 births Category:Living people Category:People from Aarau Category:20th-century clarinetists Category:21st-century clarinetists Category:20th-century Swiss male musicians Category:21st-century Swiss male musicians Category:Wandelweiser composers