Astride Schlaefli

Astride Schlaefli is a versatile artist working primarily as a composer and director. In parallel with her degree in art and music education at the University of Bern, she trained in piano and music theater at the Bern University of the Arts, specializing in contemporary chamber music and instrumental theater. She furthered her studies at the Berlin University of the Arts with Georges Aperghis, Ruedi Häusermann, Vinko Globokar, Cesar Brie, Maria Elena Amos, and Jürg Kienberger. She also acquired skills in sound and film editing and studied composition with Georges Aperghis and Xavier Dayer at the HKB in Bern.

In 2006, she founded COLLECTIF BARBARE, under which she creates music theater productions, performances, and installations. Her works take place both indoors and in public spaces and have been presented in Switzerland, Germany, France, Hungary, Turkey, Armenia, the United States, and Argentina.

A portion of her projects are participatory and promote intergenerational and cultural diversity. They bring together seniors, young people, unaccompanied minor asylum seekers, and people with cognitive disabilities on an equal footing, enabling inclusive participation.

Her work is characterized by music, sound, and poetry, creating space for humor as well as distinctive images and situations. This is particularly true for projects with a social or political focus, such as LES ENFANTS DE BARBARIE (2008), which addresses the persecution of the Yenish people in Switzerland, or LES PARADIS BARBARES (2009). In collaboration with unaccompanied minor asylum seekers, she also created WINTERREISE (2019) and L’INVITATION (2023–2024).

Furthermore, THE NOTEBOOK (2017–2022) explores childhood in wartime, while DER HIMMEL BRENNT (2023) presents a feminist perspective on war, particularly in relation to the war in Ukraine. WIE DIE FLIEGEN (2025) focus on femicide.

In her work, she often combines live music with pre-recorded sound and video material. Her preference for technically demanding and radical concepts is particularly evident in productions such as REVOX – A TALE OF PHANTOMS (2019–2022) and DER KRIEG MIT DEN MOLCHEN (2023), both realized using 3D audio and automated objects without live performers.

Her earlier works also reflect this experimental approach: CRESCENDO (composition for 47 pianos, 2005), PIANISTE (solo for a pianist without a piano, 2012), and KONZERTEN (featuring 55 recruits from the Aarau military band, 2018). Another striking example is WINTERREISE (2019), performed in February in the unheated and icy Alte Reithalle in Aarau, incorporating the physical conditions of the venue as an integral part of the staging.

Astride Schlaefli also enjoys working site-specifically, developing projects that directly engage with their performance space. Examples include NACHTREISE (2016), a production staged in the garden and basement of Theater Winkelwiese in Zurich, and SITCOM (2012), a six-part performance in the format of a reality TV series set in public space.

Another example is HAPPY FOREVER (2021), an installation in the basement of the PALAZZO WYLER. It was composed of authentic objects left behind by former residents of the apartment building. Following the exhibition, the building was demolished due to asbestos contamination, giving the project an unexpectedly final dimension.

Awards and distinctions

2020 | Travel grant from the Landis & Gyr Foundation
2013-14 | Arts Council’s Scholarship in New York from the Head of Department of Culture and Education of the State of Bern
2008 | Bourse Sonore 08 award of the Cultural Commission of the State of Jura and Bern
2006 | award at the PREMIO competition with Les Rituels barbares