MARCO KARRER'S BIOGRAPHY

Marco Karrer was born on September 6, 1994, in Bern (CH) and grew up in the neighboring municipality of Muri b. Bern, where he was introduced to music at an early age. At the age of nine, he began learning to play the saxophone first through private lessons and later with Raphael Stutz at the Villa Mettlen music school in Muri. During this time, he played as an active member of the Musik Harmonie Muri (MuHaMu), where he was first exposed to wind music and gained his initial concert experiences.

After completing his high school education at Gymnasium Kirchenfeld in 2012, where he was a member of the school's internal big band for several years, Karrer decided to pursue his career goal as a musician. Following his military service in the Swiss Military Music in 2014, where he already had his first solo performance on Swiss television, Karrer began his pre-studies at the Swiss Jazz School in Bern with Klaus Widmer. In 2016, he started his Bachelor's studies in jazz saxophone at the Bern University of the Arts and completed his extensive studies in 2022 with a "Master in Performance - Jazz" and a "Minor in Composition & Arranging."

During his studies, Karrer, in addition to his main instructor Lutz Häfner, came into contact with numerous renowned lecturers and world-famous musicians, from whom he had the opportunity to learn his craft: Frank Sikora, Peter Gromer, Django Bates, Bert Joris, Klaus Wagenleiter, Colin Vallon, Patrice Moret, Stefan Rademacher, Dejan Terzic, Matthieu Michel, Ronny Graupe, Andreas Schaerer, and many others significantly contributed to Karrer's development as a musician.

Even during his Bachelor's studies, Karrer toured Switzerland for the first time with the DKSJ Allstar project under the direction of trumpeter Erik Truffaz and repeatedly performed at the International Jazz Festival Bern under the direction of Bert Joris with the HKB Big Band. In 2021, as part of his Master's studies, he performed with the Bern Art Ensemble (formerly HKB Big Band) under the direction of Django Bates at the GENERATIONS International Jazz Festival Frauenfeld.

Further successes during this time included his performances with Swiss pop singer Stefanie Heinzmann at "Art on Ice 2019" and his longstanding membership in the Swiss Armed Forces Big Band, where he has had countless performances in Switzerland and abroad until 2024, exerting a lasting influence on Karrer's musical career.

In December 2023, Karrer released his first album "Momentum" with his Contemporary Jazz Quintet, which was created as part of his Master's degree, thereby establishing himself as a young, aspiring saxophonist in the Swiss professional music scene.

Currently, alongside his own projects, Karrer works as a saxophonist for "Tribute to Prince" at Theater Rigiblick Zurich, various horn sections (PeopleThePeople, Sedem Orchestra, Crazy Mofos), several larger ensembles such as the Swiss Jazz Composers Orchestra, Eva Kess' Inter-Musical Love Letter, Guila Bättig Orchestra, Flo Pfister Orchestra, and Jan Dintheer Orchestra, as well as several other bands (Zambo Tamas Group, Mellowdik, among others).

In recent years, Karrer has also enjoyed occasional performances as a substitute musician in the horn section of Luca Hänni.