(translated from the original German Text)
With the Swiss Grand Prix Music 2025, the Federal Office of Culture honors the outstanding career of pianist, composer, and improvisational musician Sylvie Courvoisier. At the award ceremony, Anja Illmaier from Intakt Records spoke in honor of the artist—we share her speech here, along with impressions of the evening.

The great trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith once said in the New York Times: "Whenever I was on stage with Sylvie Courvoisier, it was a journey based on mutuality and creativity. She has courage—and you can see that when she sits at the piano: when she tackles something, she doesn't approach it cautiously, but marches forward as if she wanted to save the world."
Last year saw the release of her second solo album, preceded by her trio albums, various duo and quartet formations, the acclaimed ensemble Chimaera – and in October, the new duo CD with the aforementioned exceptional trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith will follow. We at the Swiss music publisher and label Intakt Records are proud to be able to realize these projects. Because that is precisely what is crucial: that an artist has a publishing home that documents her journey, makes her works visible, and contributes to her biography. What else remains if this does not happen?
I am fortunate to have accompanied Sylvie for many years as a colleague at Intakt Records and also as a friend: in the studio, in exchanges at concerts, in all aspects of music production.
To ensure that their music can be heard worldwide, we take care of many things behind the scenes—from production, promotion, and distribution to financing. That's why it's so important to take the promotion of infrastructure seriously: when publishers and labels are strengthened, the artists themselves are strengthened too.
We met in 2012 at John Zorn's club The Stone, when Intakt organized a two-week festival for Swiss and New York musicians. In the evenings, we often sat in the wine bar around the corner – Sylvie next to Pierre Favre and Irène Schweizer. Irène, a founding member of Intakt, a pioneer, a role model for many – and herself a winner of the Swiss Grand Prix Music. She was also an important reference point for Sylvie, and today it is Sylvie who inspires younger musicians: to dare, to be courageous, and to demand.
And now, dear Sylvie, I would like to present you with a gift from Monique Crelier, Irène Schweizer's long-time partner. Irène has already given you the two small cymbals she used to play inside the piano. But there is another tool that accompanied Irène at her concerts for many years: her mallets. We are sure that you too will make the piano sing in your own unique way. 
Dear Sylvie, thank you for the many years of intensive, honest, generous collaboration and for encouraging us in these crazy times. Your work is a gift to us publishers and listeners—an idea of freedom that is sometimes quiet, sometimes loud, but always palpable. Thank you.

Fotos © 2025 BAK | Christian Felber @mign_