When he shows up, then at the wrong time, or he was already there, but for how long already and why? But if he’s not there are we missing something perhaps? Or not? He is a character with his own distinct presence, who we’ve invited this year as our «Interluder in Residence»: the musician, stage actor, singer and cabaret artist, (in which order?), Jürg Kienberger. He grew up in the Oberengadin, a few metres away from the philosopher, Nietzsche’s house. His phrase: «It’s nice to be silent together,/nicer to laugh together» makes the point succinctly. Die Zeit wrote about him: «... the best thing you can say about Mr. Kienberger, one of the greatest musical comedians in monologic times: When he plays, we are missing something. If he doesn’t play, we miss even more....»

This is how he developed: «As the youngest child of the hotelier family in the legendary ‘Waldhaus,’ Jürg Kienberger heard live music on a daily basis. The hotel orchestra plays at his home, so to speak, and fills his curious ears with countless coffeehouse melodies. After breaking off his German studies and learning his current profession—to a great extent auto-didactically—since 1984, the musician has mostly been working on a freelance basis at various theatres in Zurich, Basel, Berlin and Hamburg. In collaboration with Christoph Marthaler, he has worked on around thirty theater and opera evenings at the Salzburg Festival, the Wiener Festwochen, the Paris Opera, in Avignon and Greenland. Together with his wife Claudia Carigiet, he conceives evenings like, «Menschsein macht müde», «Ich bin ja so allein», «Ich Biene—ergo summ» and «Ich bin zum Glück zu zweit». He composed the music for Einsiedler Welttheater, for the Tellspiele in Altdorf and was awarded the ‹Salzburger Ehrenstier 2011› and the ‹Schweizer Kleinkunstpreis 2014›».

We are very much looking forward to having him join us at inopportune times.