Sylvie Courvoisier

Sylvie Courvoisier (born 30 November 1968) is a Swiss American composer, pianist, improviser and bandleader. She was born and raised in Lausanne, Switzerland, and has been a resident of New York City since 1998. She won Germany’s International Jazz Piano Prize in 2022 , the Swiss Grand Prix and The American Academy of Arts and Letters Music Award in 2025.

Courvoisier has earned her renown for balancing two distinct worlds: the classically minded chamber music of her European roots and the grooving, hook-laden sounds of the avant-jazz scene in New York. She ranges from playing with her longtime jazz trio (featuring bassist Drew Gress and drummer Kenny Wollesen ) to performing Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring in league with new-music pianist Cory Smythe, among other genre-bounding ventures. Courvoisier has collaborated over the past two decades with such luminaries as John Zorn, Wadada Leo Smith, Evan Parker, Ikue Mori, Ned Rothenberg, Fred Frith, Mark Feldman, Christian Fennesz, Israel Galván and Mary Halvorson. Courvoisier has toured the world from Europe and North America to South America, Asia and Australia. She teaches as a member of the faculty of New School of Jazz (The New School)., in New York City.