“...one of the best collaborative pianists I have ever heard; her sound is deep, her interpretation intelligent, refined, and captivating.”
—Renaud Machart, Le Monde
Pianist Erika Switzer is an internationally acclaimed performer of song and chamber music. Her performances have been described as “precise and lucid” by the New York Times and “intelligent, refined, and captivating” by Le Monde. She is currently Associate Professor of Music at Bard College and the Bard Conservatory of Music, where she directs Collaborative Piano Studies. Beginning in the spring of 2027, she will join the faculty at the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien (mdw) as Professor of Lied and Oratorio.
Erika Switzer collaborates with a range of top singers and instrumentalists around the world, frequently appearing at festivals and venues including New York’s Weill Hall (Carnegie), Geffen Hall, Frick Collection, and Bargemusic, at the Kennedy Center, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, the Spoleto Festival (Charleston, SC). With longtime duo-partner, baritone Tyler Duncan, she has recorded two albums on the Bridge label: English Song à la française and A Left Coast. Two further albums for Centrediscs feature the music of Canadian composers Jocelyn Morlock and Andrew Staniland.
As a leader in envisioning and promoting the future of art song performance, she founded the organization Sparks & Wiry Cries in 2009 in collaboration with soprano Martha Guth. “Sparks” commissions new works, presents sparksLIVE events in New York City and songSLAM events internationally, and publishes The Art Song Magazine. Two volumes of songSLAM entries have been published by NewMusicShelf and a series of commissioned works have been published by EC Schirmer.
Following her initial studies at the University of British Columbia, she completed a diploma in song interpretation at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München. During her years in Germany, she won numerous awards, including best pianist prizes at the Robert Schumann and Wigmore Hall International Song Competitions, and began her career as a recitalist. After moving to New York City in 2007, she completed her doctoral studies at The Juilliard School.
