Corin Curschellas (; born 2 July 1956) is a Swiss singer-songwriter, vocalist (jazz, folk music, world music, chanson), free improvisation, actress (theatre, film, musical), voice actress in (radio drama and audio books) as well as voice instructress.Official Website of Corin Curschellas, as of 20. März 2014
Biography Curschellas was born in 1956 in Chur (Graubünden, Switzerland where she grew up. She attended the local state school in Chur, Kantonsschule Chur, and completed her studies in 1977 with a Primary Teacher's Certificate.
From 1977 to 1983 she studied theatre and theatre pedagogy at the Zurich University of the Arts as well as three semesters of Music Sciences at the University of Zurich.
From 1983 until 1989 Curschellas lived in Berlin, followed by two years in Basel. A grant she received enabled her to move to Paris in 1991, where she ended up living until 2000, with a two-year break she spent in New York City from 1995 to 1997. Between 2000 and 2005 she alternated between Paris and Zürich.
The song "Senza patria", "Homeless" in English, stems from this rather eventful period in her life.
Since 2005 the artist has lived in Zürich and in the Surselvan Rueun about 30 kilometers outside of Chur. In Rueun she lives together with her life partner, the sculptor Linard Nicolay, in the house that belonged to her grandparents and where she used to spend her childhood holidays.La Quotidiana vom 3. Mai 2012: Corin Curschellas conta ord il cor dils Grischuns.
Corin Curschellas' actual mother tongue is the Swiss German dialect. Although from her father she learnt to speak near-perfect Surselvan,Der Landbote on 22. August 2013: «Caras steilas» bringen den Himmel nahe. she does not herself write any Graubünden Romansh songs. However, she does sing the lyrics and songs of Romansh writers in full Romansh Idiom, including Graubünden Rumansh.Sendung Corin Curschellas e sia amur per la chanzun rumantscha des Rätoromanischen Fernsehens vom 19. Mai 2013.
Speaking of her increased connection to her Romansh roots and her return to Rueun, Corin Curschellas says:
Work
Song
Corin Curschellas music covers different Music genres: Jazz, Folk, Chanson, World Music, Folk Song, Musical improvisation. She refers to herself ironically as a "sound medium"(Tonträgerin).
Corin Curschellas mostly sings in the Romansh Language, Swiss German and English, though also in Standard German, French or Italian, and even in Gibberish.
From 1977 to 1983 Corin Curschellas worked together with Walter Lietha, where they produced albums like "Die Fahrenda" (The Travellers) or "Liebi Schwiizer guet Nacht" (Goodnight, dear Swiss).
From 1993 to 1997, Corin Curschellas was lead singer for the "Vienna Art Orchestra". She toured with this Orchestra once again in 2009.
Thereafter Corin Curschellas worked on productions with Peter Scherer, a noted musician, producer and composer for film and dance, Noël Akchoté, David Byrne, Andreas Vollenweider, Max Lässer (Überlandorchester), Fritz Hauser, Heiri Känzig, Christian Marclay, Hélène Labarrière and Yves Robert. With Steve Argüelles, Christophe Minck and Benoît Delbecq she was for certain periods a full member of their Jazz and Improvisation band The Recyclers.
She brought out eight albums containing her own songs and realized numerous personal musical projects. A selection of these follows in chronological order.
With the Musiciens du Nil, Christy Doran und Fritz Hauser she toured Egypt and Tunisia in 1999. With guitarist Nguyên Lê, bass player Richard Bona and Drummer Steve Argüelles she worked between 1991 and 1995 on a Jimi Hendrix Project entitled «Are You Experienced?» at numerous festivals throughout Europe, North Africa und La Réunion. 1992 while in Paris, Corin Curschellas wrote the song La pura (English "The Farming Woman"), based on the poem of that name by the Swiss priest/poet Gion Cadieli. She combines the language of the traditional theme and alpine text with foreign, Moroccan tones. At the time, the song figured in the program "Hot Rotation" of the Swiss national television station DRS 3.Lied auf YouTube, aufgerufen am 20. März 2014. Her first large World music project Sud des Alpes originated in 2000: in this collaboration with the Senegalese Douane Saliou Sène and Abdou Samb Corin Curschellas combines Swiss folk music tradition with the sounds and rhythms of Senegal and even with the Senegalese language Wolof. The song La pura finds new expression within this project.Detailinformationen re Sud des Alpes on the Website of Corin Curschellas, as of 21. März 2014. Also in 2000 the World Music project Global Vocal Meeting with Corin Curschellas, Abdoulaye Diabate (Mali), Rinde Eckert (United States), Mónika «Mitsou» Juhász Miczura (Hungary), Sudha Ragunathan (India) and Senge (Madagascar), came about during the "Stimmen-Festival", the Voice Festival of Lörrach. It premiered in Lörrach and was followed by a tour through Europe and the United States.Informationen des Independent Labels NoEthno, on 21 March 2014. From 2001 onwards, together with Christine Lauterburg and Walter Lietha, she sings Swiss German folk song arrangements in the bands, Echo und Doppelbock. In 2004 she performed together with the Jazz pianist Vera Kappeler at the Schauspielhaus Zürich (Zürich state theater) in the "Pfauen-Matinée" of Werner Wollenberger, and with Wolfgang Mitterer and Peter Herbert she toured Austria under the name "Wir 4 " (English: "The Four of Us") in 2005.Artikel in the newspaper "Blick" on 10. November 2004.Eintrag im Kulturserver Graz, aufgerufen am 24. März 2014. With the Turkish-German singer Özay Fecht she founded a global New Year's song project in 2005.Projektinformation Happy New Year. In her Album Grischunit of 2008 she sings in Romansh and is accompanied by Marc Ribot, Peter Scherer, Shahzad Ismaily and Matt Johnson. Intriguingly, the recording took place in New York City, far from rural Romansh-speaking areas of Switzerland.Making Of Grischunit, Film von Dominik Meyer, aufgerufen am 20. März 2014.Berner Zeitung vom 13. August 2008: Corin Curschellas: Grischunit Die lyrics are by Linard Bardill, Benedetto Vigne, Ann Dee, Thomas Cathomen, Arno Camenisch and Corin Curschellas herself.Der Landbote on 23 December 2008: Poppiger Gebirgstreck The Album's name refers to a rare mineral, Grishunite belonging to the Wicksites, which occurs only in the Swiss canton of Graubünden. In the Album La Grischa, 2012 Corin Curschellas, together with Albin Brun, Patricia Draeger and Claudio Strebel presents a collection of old Romansh folk songs, with an outlandish assortment of instruments: Schwyzerörgeli/Accordion, Duduk, Soprano saxophone, Toy piano, Waterphone and Double bass.WoZ 27. Juni 2013:Der Klang der Brache Volksmusik.Bündner Tagblatt vom 11. November 2013: Die Kunst, Edelsteine zum Glänzen zu bringen. (English: "The art of making gemstones glow") The Album Origins (trad.) of 2014 also brings old Romansh traditional songs back to public awareness. It is a co-production between the violinist Andi Gabriel and the folk musicians of the group "Pflanzplätz". Ursina Giger and Astrid Alexandre appear as guest artists.Zürichsee-Zeitung vom 13. Januar 2014: Bündner Lieder in fünf Dialekten, die kaum jemand im Publikum verstand. (English: "Songs of Graubünden in five dialects that hardly anyone in the audience understood.") On 14 August 2015, a performance together with the Ladin Dolomitan Trio Ganes, as well as Patricia Draeger and Barbara Gisler premiered at the Alpentöne-Festival in Altdorf.
Instrumental Music Corin Curschellas is a Multi-instrumentalist: She plays Piano, Keyboards, Indian Harmonium, Dulcimers and Zithers, Percussion and Ukulele besides the Accordion.
Musical Ethnography A good part of Corin Curschellas’ musical work has an ethnographic aspect. She collects excerpts of Romansh cultural heritage – in the case of "Origins (trad)" she used the archive "Alfons Maissen" from the 1930s. She makes these texts known through her albums and concerts and the songbook "La Grischa" that she is working on. The book "La Grischa" contains, besides the lyrics and harmonies to the songs in the albums "La Grischa" and Origins (trad.)", much ethnographical musical information by Iso Albin. Corin Curschellas: LA GRISCHA: Chanzuns popularas rumantschas; Rätoromanische Volkslieder , Chasa Editura Rumantscha, 2013. .NZZ vom 9 August 2013: Mehr als ein Liederbuch. (English: "More than a songbook") This ethnographical engagement has caused her to become known as the "Grande Dame of contemporary and traditional Romansh Song" .La Quotidiana vom 14. März 2012: Oz conta Corin Curschellas a Bravuogn. At the same time Corin Curschellas distances herself from Pop-style Alpine Folklore.Berner Zeitung vom 10. Mai 2012: Rufe aus den rätischen Tälern und aus einer vergangenen Zeit (English: Calls from the Romansh valleys and from times gone by.)
The concert project “Suisse Miniature” forms part of the same theme. The project was born out of one of the “Convivenza-Events” of Lia Rumantscha in the year 2010. By 2013, a collection of songs in the three original languages of Graubünden, Walser German, Italian and Romansh had come about.Die Südostschweiz vom 24. August 2012: Mit Curschellas beginnt die «Stubete» bereits im Zug. (English: With Curschellas the “session” begins on the train.)Aargauer Zeitung vom 26. Mai 2013. The name of the project refers to the Open Air Theatre "Suisse Miniature" in Melide, Ticino on the one hand and on the other the fact that the Canton Graubünden represents both culturally and linguistically a kind of Switzerland in miniature.
With La Pura in 1992 her first concern with ethnographic issues lies quite far back in the past. However, Corin Curschellas sees in it a biographical connection.
(English: the older I become, the greater the affinity for the traditional songs.)
Solo Programs
Corin Curschellas started to do solo performances in 2005: 2005: endlICH («Sola!») (English (approx.): I at last) 2005: Mono («Sechs Instrumente, sechs Sprachen und eine Filmebene») (English: Six Instruments, six languages and a film plane") 2010: Pomp auf Pump («Ein dramatisch-musikalischer Abgesang»)(English: "Pump the Pomp" a musical-dramatic aftersong)Ausschnitte from the program Pomp auf Pump on YouTube. 2011: Wittern und twittern («Gesänge aus einem humanoiden Bestiarium»)(English: "Sniffing and Chirping" ("Songs from a humanoid menagerie") )
From the program Mono comes Corin Curschellas’ musical rendition of the Canzun de Sontga Margriata (English: Song of Saint Margaret), one of the oldest Romansh texts in existence. The song tells how St. Margaret, who has dressed up as an alpine dairyman, works on the Alp, but by accident her disguise is unexpectedly revealed.Lied Sontga Margriata, sung by Corin Curschellas, Video on YouTube, on 21. März 2014. Corin Curschellas interprets the song in the context of nature conservation and sustainability.
Composition Corin Curschellas produced her first substantial composition in 1979/1980 while she was still studying. It was a theatrical composition for the play Woman by Edward Bond at the National Theatre in Zürich – Schauspielhaus Zürich, directed by George Gruntz.
In 2003 Corin Curschellas composed the music for the TV drama, Marilyn by Stina Werenfels together with Christian Rösli
In 2014 she worked on the cultural-political project "Uccelin – eine Singvogel Suite" (Uccelin – a Songbird Suite). Die Suite pays Hommage to and supports the art project «Uccellin» (English Little Bird) of the Chur artist Hans Danuser. The content deals with children's Counting-out games and the political theme is the influence of politics on art.Die Südostschweiz vom 25. Januar 2014: Kunst ist das, was bleibt. (English: Art is that which remains)