Michel Runtz

French-Swiss composer and pianist Michel Runtz was born in Paris and lives mainly in Switzerland.

He is a former professor and dean of piano classes at the Music Conservatory of Regions (Switzerland).

Founding president of the Concours International de Piano de Fribourg (Switzerland) and co-founder of the International Sino-Swiss Piano Competition of Shanghai, both devoted to the repertoire of the 20th and 21st centuries, for young pianists.

Michel Runtz writes to communicate the emotion he feels for a text, a film, a play, but also for the aesthetics of certain painters, the contrasts of matter… the beauty they contain. This “answer”, echoing other creations, is given by the composer in a musical language that never seeks to lead the listener astray, but instinctively draws him towards transparency and simplicity.

His works immerse the listener in a harmonic universe that is situated in a kind of ``in-between`` that reveals a crossbred music.

Mixed training: After a classical training at the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris, Michel Runtz perfected his skills with Xenakis, Takemitsu, C. Helffer and P-L. Aimard.

Mixed professional activities: He performs his own works in concert, interprets Satie in the theater, directs the Association Jeune Musique, and sets up new forms of collaboration with Chinese artists.

Mixed composition: He writes piano pieces, film music and music for the stage, and takes on commissions from chamber orchestras, choirs and brass bands.

Michel Runtz has performed in China, France, Italy, Morocco, Poland, Russia and Switzerland. His compositions are increasingly featured in international competitions and on the programs of renowned performers such as Irina Kataeva, Fanny Clamagirand, Vanya Cohen, Jay Gottlieb, William Chen, Simone Keller, Boris Baraz…

In Paris, for 100 performances at the Théâtre de la Gaîté-Montparnasse, Michel Runtz plays the works of Erik Satie in Choses vues, with and without glasses, accompanied by actors Jean-Paul Farré and Bernard Dhéran.

Notes and Light, a concert by Michel Runtz based on a new concept incorporating a lighting design, is presented in Switzerland (Düdingen) and as part of the Murten Classics 2009 Festival, as well as in China (Shanghai and Shenyang).

In 2009, Michel Runtz scored Isabelle Dufour’s film Et au milieu coule la Sarine (Fribourg).

As part of the France-Russia Year, Michel Runtz is composing all the compulsory pieces for the 2010 Nizhny Novgorod Concertino Ensemble Piano Competition. These are pieces for piano(s) for 4, 6 and 8 hands.

Between 2013 and 2016, several masterclasses and concerts took place around Michel Runtz’s chamber music and piano pieces at the conservatories of Geneva, Strasbourg and Rueil-Malmaison.

Michel Runtz has been invited several times by the composition department of the Shanghai Conservatory to give lectures on his writing. A concert of his compositions is presented by various Chinese chamber musicians and soloists.

The duo Olga Malisova & Michael Schreider record works for piano 4 hands by Michel Runtz.

In 2018, Michel Runtz received the Prix de la Fondation Claude Blancpain (Switzerland) for the founding of the Association Jeune Musique, the continued existence of the Fribourg International Piano Competition and Fribourg’s new international influence through its innovative Fribourg – Shanghai project. This project will take shape in 2019 with the 1st Sino-Swiss International Piano Competition of Shanghai and the creation of an exchange network between China and Switzerland, activated by the^1st Prize winners who have become ambassadors for the contemporary musical heritage of both countries.

The 2nd Sino-Swiss International Piano Competition of Shanghai took place in March 2024.

Michel Runtz has just finished composing an opera based on Yasmina Khadra’s Cousine K.

Michel Runtz’s works are published and distributed by Editions Runtz Music Edition.