"With her highly individual approach to give even the softest tones in the piano spectrum enough room to unfold, Gisela Horat has to be considered one of the most interesting pianists in contemporary jazz".
Jazz-Portrait by Tom Fuchs, Piano News 5/2020
Concerts
Friday, 25 September 2026, 7.30pm Cooljojo Jazz + Art in Tokyo, Gisela Horat Piano Solo
Saturday, 26 September 2026, 7.30pm Nardis in Tokyo, Gisela horat Solo
Sunday, 27 September 2026, 7pm Airegin in Yokohama, Gisela Horat Piano Solo
Monday, 28 September 2026, 7pm Haretara Sorani Mame Maite in Tokyo, Gisela Horat Piano Solo
Friday, 2 October 2026, 8pm Now`s the Time in Ashahikawa, Gisela Horat Piano Solo
Saturday, 3 October 2026, 1.30pm Coo in Sapporo, Gisela Horat Piano Solo
Thursday, 8 October 2026, 7pm Jazz Spot Leaf in Hakodate, Gisela Horat Piano Solo
Friday, 9 October 2026, 7.30pm Café Bar West in Morioka, Gisela Horat Piano Solo
Thursday, 29 October 2026, 8pm Weltecho in Chemnitz, Gisela Horat Trio
Saturday, 31 October 2026, 9pm Jazzstudio in Nürnberg, Gisela Horat Trio
Saturday, 21 November 2026, 8pm Walhalla im Exil in Wiesbaden, Christine Stöckli and Gisela Horat
Thursday, 3 December 2026, 8.15pm ESSE in Winterthur, Gisela Horat Trio
News:
On 25 September, the double album Gisela Horat "Trio Solo" will be released on Unit Records as part of the Troxler Art Edition.
The album is supported by:
On Gisela Horat’s "Trio Solo": It so happens that, at a time when there is relative consensus on how a piano trio ought to sound, this pianist has recorded a trio album that is quite different. ................ Instead of a rigid metre, there is a fluid, flexible sense of time, creating an impression of what an Erik Satie trio might sound like. Erik Mandel, Jazzthing September/October 2026.
Accompanying the release is a video entitled "Mutter"
und die Single "Der kleine Gnom"
Sunday, 10 May 2026 on SWR Kultur at 10.03 pm: NOWJazz: Lyrical, personal, radical – Pianist Gisela Horat by Odilo Clausnitzer
A wonderful portrait in Jazzpodium 12-25/1-26 by Manfred Papst: a pianist who focuses on precise expression while still conveying a wealth of emotion; long established in her excellent trio. For Swiss pianist GISELA HORAT, it has been a winding path: from a mountain village to natural sciences to jazz clubs, where she unfortunately makes painfully rare guest appearances.
Here is another wonderful concert video from the ‘Unit Strong Concerts’ series, which was released on YouTube on 26 November 2025.
The Gisela Horat Trio has released its sixth album entitled ‘Live in Leipzig’ on Unit Records in the Troxler Art Edition, a concert recording made on 15 June 2024 at the Mediencampus in Leipzig. Download, LP and CD are available on Bandcamp or in all major shops.
With a single sound that becomes a resonating body, Horat explores the depths of space in the tradition of Irène Schweizer... Intense, uncompromising... a requiem for a lost time. Jazzthing 160 September/October 2025: Maxi Broecking
The Gisela Horat Trio beautifully reveals how a song emerges from a nucleus, from a seed of an idea, not a model one, but a song nonetheless, through a whole process of gentle movements, constant deliberation and never brash action and reaction. Jazzpodium 8-9/2025: Susanne Müller
Through their improvisations, they explore their shared possibilities in an exciting and energetic way – sometimes deafeningly harmonious, sometimes oppressively dissonant. Concerto 4/25. ost
Contemporary (free) jazz of the highest calibre, not intended or suitable for casual listening. Magnificent! er-em-online.de; Norbert Mendel
She (Gisela Horat) is now one of Switzerland's most creative and distinguished jazz pianists. InMusic_127 September/October 2025: Frank Zöllner
An intense, sonically evocative musical experience from this extraordinary trio. virgin-jazz-face.de : Christoph Giese
Listen
Interview of Gisela Horat by Erik Van Damme in April 2022
Interview of Gisela Horat by Tomasz Furmanek, London Jazz News in March 2022
CD Release 2023
I have released my two new CDs on 1 September 2023. Both are available at Bandcamp and other music or streaming services.
"Waldgeist" - the video for our Trio - CD "erzählen"
"Geheimnis" - the second video for our Trio - CD
Erzählen
"Erzählen" has been recorded with the Gisela Horat Trio and Christine Stöckli as speaker in November 2022 and was released in September 2023. You can order the digital version and signed CD versions at Bandcamp.
...In her trio and in collaboration with the author Christine Stöckli, she develops stories in wide arcs of suspense on the album "erzählen", which has an excellent sound and lingers in the listener's head for an agonisingly long time. No light fare, that much is certain. (Tom Fuchs, Piano News 6/23)
Gisela Horat Volume 2
Gisela Horat Volume 2 is my solo CD release for 2023. You can order the digital version and signed CD versions at Bandcamp.
…..Gisela Horat calmly contrasts flowing melodies of subtle beauty with neo-tonal techniques such as shimmering cascades of sound in the string box, thus evoking immense arcs of tension......... One thing is certain: after Irène Schweizer, Gisela Horat is the most impressive Swiss keyboard artist - a sensational discovery. (Sven Thielmann, Fono Forum 2/24)
CD "2020"
It would be hard to review a bad year in a more impressive way (Piano News 5/2021)
ANGST Experiencing fear consciously, being oppressed and worried by it without panic, and sometimes only perceiving it subliminally or even repressing it. An everyday and disturbing feeling.
Videos of the Gisela Horat Trio
Live Stream Jazz iG Göppingen from 14 July 2021.
Support for the concerts of the Gisela Horat Trio by third parties
I am really thankful for the support by others, enabling me to do my tours and productions. I want to mention the following ones specifically:
- Kulturförderung Kanton Zürich mit Swisslos