The Swiss and French percussionist Cécile Unternährer has been working as a musician and head of the logistics and transport department at the Delirium Ensemble from 2018 until 2020.

Cécile Unternährer has worked with musicians such as Vinko Globokar (2016, Elegie Balkanique), Salvatore Sciarrino (2016, Un fruscìo lungo trent’anni) and the improvisers Fred Frith, Alfred Zimmerlin, Le Quan Ninh and Harald Kimmig.

She has performed at numerous festivals, including the Warsaw Autumn Festival (in 2018, with the Delirium Ensemble & gen ~ .rate with compositions by Caspar Johannes Walter, Aleksandra Kaca, Teoniki Rożynek, Żaneta Rydzewska and Rafał Ryterski), the Zeitfestival Zürich (2016, with the trio Zip, free importation), the Kunstfestspiele Herrenhausen Hannover (2016, INUKSUIT by John Luther Adams), and the Zimriya World Assembly of Choirs in Akko, Israel (2013, with the Chamber Academy Basel).

As a member of the Delirium Ensemble as well as a musician in ad hoc ensembles, she has premiered diverse works, including pieces by Fritz Hauser (Schlag Puls Cluster Stille 2019), Caspar Johannes Walter (Black Rotation I 2018, Black Rotation II 2018), Demetre Gamsachurdia (Vikarë 2018), Anda Kryeziu (Fumes 2018), Eleni Ralli (AIR and Bellows 2018), Adrian Nagel (Exhibit 2018), Ivan Gonzales Escuder (Concertino per Arciorgno 2018), Elnaz Sayedi (in the airs [] not tight 2018), Żaneta Rydzewska (no-body 2018), Teoniki Rożynek (minimal surfaces 2018), Rafał Ryterski ( taking control 2018), Aleksanda Kaca (unseen 2018), Anna Tuena (Air of autumn 2013) and Alexander Knaifel (The Spire of Buyan 2011).

The percussionist founded the new music Quintett Alunir in 2018, for which Tobias Krebs composed the piece “bois.cuivre.verre” in the same year. In 2015, Cécile Unternährer also co-founded the improvisation ensemble Trio Zip, for which Dennis Bäsecke-Beltrametti composed “Sweet Suite” (2015). Since 2014, she has played in the pop and film music band Les Baronnes Underground, which she founded with three other musicians.

Cécile Unternährer has worked with orchestras such as the Neues Orchester Basel, the Chamber Academy Basel and the Swiss Youth Symphony Orchestra. She has played under the direction of famous conductors such as Heinz Holliger (2015, with the Orchester der Hochschule Basel Tonscherben of Heinz Holliger) and Gábor Takács-Nagy (2016, with the Orchester der Hochschule Basel, Music for strings, percussion and celecsta of Bela Bartok). She is also active in the theater and musical scene. As a musician she appeared in Der Teufel mit den drei goldenen Haaren by Johannes Hanke (2016, Theater Basel) and in My Fair Lady by Alan Jay Lernerauf (2016, Fricktaler Bühne, Rheinfelden).

Due to her great interest in Korean traditional music and drum dance, Cécile Unternährer studied with the most important Korean masters Kim Duk-Soo, Lee Kwang-Soo, Lee Dong-Joo and Yang Jin-Sung. As a soloist and in ensembles she has had the opportunity to perform in various countries: Karneval der Kulturen Berlin (DE, 2018), Fête des jardins botaniques Neuchâtel (CH, 2018), Schweizer Tanztage Poschiavo (CH, 2018), and Pilbong Moon Festival (KR, 2017)

Cécile Unternährer studied percussion at the Hochschule für Musik Basel in the classes of Matthias Würsch and Christian Dierstein.

She currently lives in Basel and teaches at the Conservatoire Neuchâtelois (CH).