Biography

Eleonore Willi was born in Zurich. From 1988 until 1991 she studied at the Conservatory of Music in Winterthur with Susanne Basler and graduated 1991 with distinction.

She continued further studies, receiving her concert diploma in 1998. After her years in Lübeck, she worked as a freelance musician with the Opera and Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich. From 2006 to 2017, Eleonore Willi lived in Paris, where she was an ensemble member of the Musiciens du Louvre under the artistic direction of Marc Minkowski until 2013. She subsequently received numerous invitations from l'Opéra de Paris, l'Orchestre de Paris, and the Orchestre National de France.

Since 2017, Eleonore Willi lives in Zurich again. Eleonore Willi appears regularly with the Zurich Opera House Orchestra and with the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich. She remains an enthusiastic chamber musician and performs regularly with her own ensembles: Cello Duo with Alexander Neustroev (Weber Duo), Cello/Accordion Duo with Jürg Luchsinger (Duo Safran), Piano/Cello Duo with Barbara Binet, and other chamber music formations. In 2022, she founded a piano trio called Geistertrio with Edward Rushton on piano and Yukiko Ishibashi on violin.

In 2024, she was the moderator of the 16th International Geza Anda Competition in Zurich. Since August 2024, Eleonore Willi has been a lecturer at the University of Teacher Education in Kreuzlingen. She plays a master cello by Bernardel (Père) from 1856. Her repertoire includes works from the baroque to the modern era, including the complete suites for solo cello by Johann Sebastian Bach, which she also performs on a historical Baroque cello.