Eliana Burki brought the alphorn into the 21st century ... at age 39: Video, Photos -

She dusted off the alphorn and gave the instrument a new image. She was undeterred by the fact that both the jazz and folk music scenes found her too commercial.

2008 with Kurt Aeschbacher: Eliana Burki stands slightly higher on a step, her alphorn protrudes onto the stage. She only plays in a duo with drums and yet a whole band sounds.

Not traditional, but funky

To describe her style, Eliana Burki herself created the term “Funky Swiss Alphorn”. Her path was a musically independent one: in the tradition of Hans Kennel and Arkady Shilkloper, she mixed the alphorn with jazz, funk and blues.

She could groove on this bulky instrument, for which she had a mouthpiece with valves specially made. Eliana wanted to be able to play more than just the natural tones.

Her long-time band colleague Adriano Regazzin describes her virtuosity as follows: “She was an impressive soloist who could play difficult runs in classical pieces as well as surprising improvisations.” She not only performed with a jazz band, but also in a piano duo with her mother or with a symphony orchestra.

The garden hose as a musical instrument

The alphorn was Eliana Burki’s instrument. She didn’t come from a folk music family, but grew up with classical music in the canton of Solothurn.

At the age of six she accidentally heard an alphorn and was enthusiastic. She even took a garden hose with a mouthpiece with her on vacation so that she could practice. At the age of ten she gave her first concerts. She would have loved to have studied the alphorn. But that wasn’t allowed at the Basel Music Academy at the time – so she took piano and singing.

With her way of playing the alphorn and her compositions, Eliane Burki quickly became a kind of musical ambassador: in 1999, when she was 16, she represented Switzerland at a world congress in Paris. In 2002 she brought Swissness to the Expo. Thanks to Eliana, Switzerland was able to present itself as fresh and modern, but anchored in tradition.

Critically eyed by the music scene

A certain part of the music world didn’t take this approach seriously: there was too much show for the jazz musicians, too much commercialization, too little personal style. Criticism came from folk music because they deliberately did not play in traditional costume and threw the usual rules of alphorn playing overboard. But that was her merit.

Eliana Burki was known as someone who did her thing. In a male-dominated scene, she didn’t allow herself to be deterred by being sexualized and underestimated. “Of course she also played with the image of the blonde girl with the alphorn and dealt with stupid sayings with confidence,” says band colleague Adriano Regazzin.