Viviane Chassot was born in Zurich and lives today as a freelance musician in Basel. She received her first accordion lessons from Ernst Kaelin at the age of 12, and he encouraged her early on to perform classical polyphonic works on the single-tone accordion (MIII). She also received important encouragement from Gérard Fahr during this early phase of her music education. Chassot completed her studies with Teodoro Anzellotti at the Bern University of the Arts in 2006 with a Master in Performance and Pedagogy. From 2009 to 2013 she lived in Leipzig as a freelance musician. During this time, she received significant support from Eberhard Feltz (Hanns Eisler University of Music, Berlin) and attended numerous master classes with Ferenc Rados, András Schiff, Alfred Brendel and others. In addition to her busy concert schedule, Chassot also gives international master classes. She teaches the accordion at the Winterthur Conservatory and at the Hohner Conservatory in Trossingen. She is a member of the long-established Rotary Club of Basel.
Chassot is continually setting new standards with her interpretations on the accordion. She gives solo and chamber music performances throughout the world, in concert halls such as the Berlin Philharmonic, the Gewandhaus Leipzig, the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Konzerthaus in Vienna, the Wigmore Hall and the Zurich Tonhalle. She works with conductors such as Simon Rattle, Riccardo Chailly, David Zinman and Heinz Holliger and makes guest appearances at international festivals. In August 2014 she was Artist in Residence at the Murten Classics Festival. A versatile musician, she crosses stylistic boundaries and combines the genres of classical music, jazz, new music and improvisation. In recent years, Chassot has performed many world premieres and was the winner of a Kranichstein Music Prize. She was also honoured with the Swiss Ambassador’s Award in London in 2015. Chassot is an artistic personality with international charisma and a pioneer in her field, and received the Swiss Music Prize in 2021.
