The Department of Jazz and Folk Music welcomes Dave Gisler, Samuel Leipold, Mareille Merck and Manuel Troller as new lecturers for "Guitar Jazz" from the fall semester 2024.
Dave Gisler is one of the leading Swiss guitarists of his generation and regularly performs with his trio throughout Europe. In 2019, the Dave Gisler Trio invited US trumpeter Jaimie Branch to go on tour together. In 2021, Dave Gisler began a collaboration with David Murray, which led to the release of the album ’See You Out There’ (Intakt Records) in March 2022, on which Jaimie Branch and David Murray were also involved. The quintet combines punky energy, the free aesthetic of the sixties, powerful rock accents and the diverse soundscapes of modern jazz.
Together with Valeria Zangger and Dominik Blum, Dave Gisler forms the trio Dr. O.G.E. He also plays in Christoph Irniger’s band ’Pilgrim’ and was a permanent member of the Swiss Jazz Orchestra, the Lucerne Jazz Orchestra and the Zurich Jazz Orchestra. Dave Gisler is an alumnus of the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts.
Samuel Leipold grew up in Näfels (Glarus) in a musical family. Since studying at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts with Roberto Bossard, Frank Möbus, Nils Wogram and others, Leipold has continuously developed into a differentiated, independent voice in Swiss jazz. His music focuses on the exploration of his own artistic identity and the search for personal expression. Documented on the critically acclaimed solo CD ’Viscosity’ (QFTF 2021) and his current release ’Ostro’ (HatHut 2023), Leipold develops ’a language full of details that has nothing intrusive, but all the more fine nuances and spontaneous developments’ (U. Steinmetzger).
Leipold is also a versatile and active sideman: he is a member of the Swiss Jazz Orchestra and can be heard on their two latest CDs. He also plays free improvised music with Ruedi Häusermann and Marco Käppeli, among others, and is part of Martin Perret’s band L’Anderer. He also devotes himself to the standard jazz repertoire in regular club concerts.
Mareille Merck completed her jazz guitar studies with Lionel Loueke, Wolfgang Muthspiel, Frank Möbus, Kalle Kalima and Roberto Bossard in Germany and Switzerland, among others. After completing her master’s degree in performance in Lucerne in 2020, she continued her studies in music education at the Zurich University of the Arts. She is the founder and leader of the trio Mareille Merck LARUS, with whom she plays her own compositions. In 2021, the trio was nominated for the Jazz Prize of the Zürcher Kantonalbank (ZKB), selected for the Suisse Diagonales Tour and released its debut album ’Fadenschlag’ (Mons Records) in collaboration with Radio SRF 2 Kultur.
Mareille Merck is actively involved in the local music scene, including as a board member and member of the Musicians’ Council at the Moods jazz club in Zurich and on the board of the Jazzbaragge association. In 2021 and 2022, Mareille received a working grant from the City of Zurich to support her artistic projects.
Manuel Troller is a guitarist, composer and improvising musician and is one of the most active representatives of the Swiss music scene. He is interested in the perception of time, unconventional musical forms in all genres and the processes of reduction. His works have been released by three:four records and Meakusma, Cuneiform Records, Clean Feed Records, Astral Spirits, Veto-Records, Everest Records, among others.
In addition to his long-standing membership of the internationally renowned Schnellertollermeier trio, he has also been working as a solo artist since 2015 and in close collaboration with the Bernese percussionist Julian Sartorius and in various free improvising formations. In 2019, he was artist in residence and guest curator of the Taktlos Festival in Zurich. In 2021 he was awarded the Swiss Music Prize and in 2023 the Recognition Prize of the City of Lucerne.
We warmly welcome Dave Gisler, Samuel Leipold, Mareille Merck and Manuel Troller to the Lucerne School of Music and look forward to working with them!
