Carl Rütti

Carl Rütti, born in Fribourg/Switzerland in 1949, grew up in Zug, attended the monastery school in Engelberg, then studied at the Zurich Conservatory where he took solo diplomas on both piano and organ. Moving to London in the mid-1970s he studied the piano with Kendall Taylor and the organ with Richard Latham, but it was his experience of the English choral tradition and its stylistic pluralism that was a revelation to him. It was what prompted him to begin composing. As early as 1981, the elite ensemble of the BBC Singers performed a work of Rütti’s, and in the decades since then he has worked closely with many of the finest vocal groups in Britain.

These range from brilliant choirs such as Cambridge Voices to the BBC Symphony Chorus and the London Bach Choir (who commissioned his Requiem and recorded it on the Naxos label). In 2000, King’s College Choir sang Rütti’s Christmas Carol 'I wonder as I wander' at their Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, which was broadcast to millions across the world on Christmas Eve. It has since been taken up into the repertoire on at least three continents (as a brief YouTube search will confirm), and King’s commissioned another Carol from him for its 2014 service – arguably the most prestigious choral commission in the English-speaking world.

Carl Rütti has expanded his worklist into just about every genre, though the vocal roots of his style remain audible. In 2015 Rütti was awarded the Orlando-di-Lasso-Medal.