Fritz Tschannen

Fritz Tschannen is best known in his native Switzerland as a musician and accordion player. He gave his first solo concert in 1928 when he was only 8-years-old. He began teaching the instrument in his later teens. But he continued to compete in ski jumping, joining the national team in 1945. He won Swiss championships and broke the world ski flying record at Planica, Slovenia with a jump of 120 metres in 1948.

Tschannen was asked to coach the US ski jumpers but could not obtain a work permit so he settled in Canada where he continued his musical work. In Canada he taught accordion and had his own television program, La Suisse qui chante. He returned to Switzerland in 1964, founding his own private music school. In 1980 the director of the Sion Conservatoire asked him to create an accordion class. In 1990 he began conducting the Union instrumentale de Delémont, retiring from that position in 1999, although he continued to teach music and conduct part-time, as well as writing music, by setting poetry to music, and playing for pleasure.