Short biography
Beat Hofstetter completed his first degree in music, specialising in saxophone, wind orchestra conducting and music secondary education, at what was then the Conservatoire of the Musik-Akademie Basel. He went on to study saxophone and conducting at Northwestern University in Chicago, where he was awarded a Master of Music. He then went on to specialise in orchestral conducting at the Karlsruhe University of Music.
As a saxophonist, Beat Hofstetter won 1. prize at the 10th National Youth Music Competition in Riddes in 1988 and the special prize awarded by Radio Espace 2; he was also a scholarship holder of the Kiefer Hablitzel Foundation. In 1994, he founded the ‘ARTE Quartet’, which maintains close collaboration with various composers and performers (Tim Berne, Pierre Favre, Fred Frith, Michael Riessler, Terry Riley). This has resulted in numerous world premieres, radio broadcasts and CD recordings.
For 10 years, Beat Hofstetter was a music teacher at secondary school level, where he regularly staged musicals and operas.
As a conductor, he has worked with various wind and symphony orchestras (including the Dreiländerensemble, the Liestal Orchestra and the Trirhenum Basel Symphony Orchestra), with whom he has also frequently premiered commissioned works.
From 1998 to 2026, he held the post of Head of Music Secondary Education II in the Basel area. Initially, this was a jointly created post at the Basel Institute of Education and the Musik-Akademie Basel; subsequently, he worked at the successor institution, HPSABB (University of Education and Social Work of the Two Basels); and, from 2010, he served as Head of the Music Secondary Education programme at the Basel Academy of Music FHNW. He was responsible for matters relating to music education during several higher education reforms and contributed to the further development of the curricula.
From 2010 to 2014, he was also programme director of the Master’s programme in Instrumental and Vocal Music Education at the Institut Klassik at the HSM Basel and was responsible for all continuing professional development programmes. He was a long-standing representative of the HSM on the FHNW’s Continuing Professional Development Committee.
For ten years, he was Professor of Music Pedagogy at the Institute for Upper Secondary Education at HPSABB and the FHNW University of Teacher Education.
Alongside his artistic work, Beat Hofstetter focuses intensively on issues relating to music education and the design of continuing professional development programmes for schools and music schools. He has initiated several research projects and was involved as a cooperation partner in the EU’s Comenius project, ‘accompagnato – Bridges between Study and the Profession of Music Teacher’, and in the implementation of a dedicated ‘Accompagnato’ course with students and practising teachers in Basel.
He currently heads the music departments of the Matura examination boards in Basel-Stadt and Solothurn and regularly evaluates curricula for music and instrumental tuition, most recently as part of the cantonal WEGM projects.
He serves as a judge at competitions and in talent development programmes, and runs courses for saxophonists and coaching sessions for ensembles.
Beat Hofstetter has also been teaching as a professor of saxophone and chamber music at Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (formerly the Lucerne Conservatoire) since 1993.
He is a member of the Swiss Association for Music Pedagogy and a member of the Swiss Music Association.
Further links
Personal website
www.arte-quartett.com