Klavierduo De Piante Vicin Oetiker

The collaboration of the piano duo Paola De Piante Vicin & Adrian Oetiker has been developing for over 20 years. Both pianists are distinguished by a special affinity and versatile experience in chamber music. Through intensive work, they have mastered the art of four-hand piano playing and found a unique harmony.

Paola De Piante Vicin was born in Padua. She began her piano studies at the conservatory in her hometown, where she received her diploma in 1995. She then continued her education with Andrea Lucchesini and Maria Tipo in Fiesole and completed her studies in the master class of Prof. Adrian Oetiker at the Hochschule für Musik in Basel with a soloist diploma. She also received important artistic guidance from Sergio Perticaroli and Americo Caramuta. Critics praise the “fine artistic flair” and the “delicate tonal language” of her playing and Joaquin Achucarro was “particularly impressed not only by her precise piano technique but also by her personality and imagination.”
Awarded at numerous piano competitions, she performed early on as a soloist and chamber musician in major Italian venues such as the Teatro Valli in Reggio Emilia, the Palazzo Chigi Saracini in Siena and the Auditorium Pollini in Padua. She has since also performed in the Tonhalle St. Gallen, the Casino Basel, the Salle du Conservatoire de Paris, the Belgrade Theatre, the Ehrbar Hall in Vienna as well as at the Lucerne Festival. As a chamber musician, she collaborates with various partners, including Lev Sivkov, Fabio di Cásola, Xiaoming Wang and in a piano duo with her husband Adrian Oetiker. For many years, she was a sought-after repetiteur and worked with musicians such as Thomas Demenga, David Geringas, Wolfgang Böttcher, Wen-Sinn Yang, Troels Svane and Miklós Perényi.
Her great passion for literature led her, in March 2020, to complete her Master’s degree in Italian Philology at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich with a thesis on Vitaliano Trevisan. In September 2025, she obtained her PhD in Italian Literature at the University of Zurich, where she has been involved since September 2021 in the SNSF project “A Space of Experience – Three Literatures. Readings of Upheaval in Graubünden after 1945.” Her research focuses on the relationships between identity and borders, as well as on multilingualism and cultural plurality. She is actively engaged in literary projects and has has an active publication record.
Paola De Piante Vicin is the founder and artistic director of the concert series Klanglichter in Sissach (Switzerland) and has been a cultural councillor in the Canton of Basel-Landschaft (Switzerland) since October 2020.

The swiss pianist Adrian Oetiker is pursuing a worldwide career since many years. He is a successful soloist and chamber musician, at the same time he is in great demand as a professor. Critics describe his playing as «flawless, richly varied jeu perlé», they praise his «touches light as feathers» and «exactly calculated tone colours». They also appreciate the «eruptive pure energy», «power and purpose», and the «ability to conjure lucid and brilliant atmosphere».
After the first piano lessons with his father and Hans-Rudolf Boller he studied in the class of Homero Francesch at the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste and with Bella Davidovich at the Juilliard School in New York. He also took lessons with Lazar Berman. He won many national prices and scholarships, soon followed by international distinctions and prices (e.g. Cologne, Clara Haskil, Dublin). In 1994 he was awarded the cultural price of his home town for founding the Chamber Music Festival of St. Gallen. In 1995 he won the prestigious ARD International Piano Competition in Munich.
His concerts in Europe, America and Australia led to collaborations with the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Irish National Symphony Orchestra and many others. After a successful tour of Europe with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra he has been invited to Australia twice and played with most orchestras of the continent. He performed all piano concertos by Béla Bartók with the Orchestre Symphonique de Mulhouse under Daniel Klajner. He plays recitals and chamber music at the Berliner Philharmonie, the Gewandhaus Leipzig, the Festspielhaus Salzburg, the KKL, the Teatro La Fenice and many other halls. He enjoys playing chamber music with his wife Paola De Piante Vicin (Piano Duo Paola&Adrian Oetiker), in the Feininger Trio Berlin, but also with Eduard Brunner, Ana Chumachenco, Homero Francesch, Mario Hossen, Wen-Sinn Yang and many other friends. He also played the piano solo parts in several ballet productions at the Opernhaus Zürich, the Semperoper Dresden as well as the Bavarian State Opera, mostly with choreographer Christian Spuck.
Since 1996 he is professor of piano at the Hochschule für Musik Basel, in 2011 he was appointed professor of piano at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Munich. He is also the artistic director of the International Summer Academy of Ettal.