Ruedi
Roth

Ruedi Roth, born in the swiss Toggenburg as the eldest of four children, grew up on a farm, where – thanks to his mother - music has always been omnipresent. As a teenager he taught himself to play the accordion, joined a local costume group during his apprenticeship in farming. In 1982 he founded the ländler trio Churfirschtegruess and attended the swiss tradition of going from door to door masked as a Silvesterchlaus. After his marriage in 1992 he overtook his parents’ farm.

At the suggestion of the famous swiss folk musician Willi Valotti he joined the yodelling club in Wattwill as a singer and conductor, a bit later he also overtook the direction of the club. Willi Valotti also gave him a serious training in musical theory and harmonics. At the same time Roth began to compose his own yodelling pieces, his first natural yodel was called De Zwisler. Many yodelling songs and natural yodels followed. Their topics are always about humans and their emotions. In 2013 Roth got the request to compose a yodel mass, which then was called Seelklang and was performed throughout Switzerland.  2014 was a very special year for Ruedi Roth. Together with his brother, he had composed the yodel Roth-Zäuerli, which then was chosen for the soundtrack of The Grand Budapest Hotel by Wes Anderson and made a swiss celebrity out of the farmer and passionate hobby musician. Furthermore, he was awarded with the Swiss advancement award for culture. As Roth’s musical tasks are extensive now, he decided to let his farm to be able to concentrate on his music full time. He is conducting, composing, leading three yodelling clubs and a choir, plays in a ländler band, produces cd-recordings and organizes several cultural activities in his home country.

The Roth-Zäuerli will be performed tonight by the composer Ruedi Roth together with Christian Frick-Rederer.