Alain Roche

Details about the project

Alain Roche is a pianist, composer, scenographer and multi-instrumentalist artist from Switzerland.

Born in 1973 in Porrentruy, a Swiss municipality in the canton of Jura, Alain's musical journey started at the École Jurasienne et Conservatoire de Musique, where he studied classical music and learned Piano with Jana Rondez. He then learned Oboe with Marc Baudry, at the Conservatoire Henri Dutilleux du Grand Belfort, in France. Alain continued his training in contemporary music at the École des Technologies Musicales (ETM), in Geneva.

Alain Roche spent more than two decades creating music for dance and theatre, as well as playing the classical organ in churches in his native Jura.

In 2012, Alain founded BOLL & ROCHE CIE, with dancer and director Stéphanie Boll, and started focusing on his own productions.

Alain Roche is fascinated by natural transformations — the concept of transformation lies at the core of Alain's artistic research and creations.

Over the years, these transitions have become a major source of inspiration for his compositions. Alain chooses suspended moments, where everything changes from one second to the next, to connect with his audience.

Alain offers a time-space total immersion through unique artistic proposals.

In 2013, drawn by the fleeting instant between night and day, Alain Roche created PIANO VERTICAL, a unique unconventional three-part corpus that sees a grand piano turned 90 degrees and suspended in the middle of the air.

PIANO VERTICAL began with IMPROMPTU, a recital at dawn in the heart of the city. In 2019, Alan continued with CHANTIER, a performance for solo piano and construction site sounds, at dawn.

In 2023, Alain launched SOLSTICE TO SOLSTICE Part I in Munich, Germany.

During the 2023–2024 season, Alain Roche delivered a daily performance, for 182 consecutive mornings at dawn, during the blue hour, while suspended with his vertical piano, inviting over 15.000 people to look up to the sky and witness the renewed beauty of each day.

Alain Roche is now preparing SOLSTICE TO SOLSTICE Part II: 184 performances starting on the summer solstice in 2027 until the winter solstice in 2027. The third and final album in the triptych of SOLSTICE TO SOLSTICE, RETURNING SOLSTICE, will be recorded in the spring of 2028.

In August 2024, Alain was invited to the closing ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games, where he performed Gabriel Fauré’s "Hymn to Apollo", rearranged by Victor Le Masne, suspended in the air with his Piano Vertical in the heart of the Stade de France. Roche performed a duet with tenor Benjamin Bernheim, dressed by designer Kevin, Germanier and conducted by Thomas Jolly, in front of 80.000 spectators and several hundred million television viewers.

Currently, Alain Roche is working on his upcoming project, REQUIEM FOR A DEAD SUN, with production starting in early 2026.

WHCYPR.AGENCY has been working with Alain Roche since 2025, helping him develop his artist brand, solidify his presence in the UK and Europe, and reach new international audiences.