Features
Baloise Session Founder Passes
Baloise Session founder and promoter Matthias Müller was 51 years old. For more than 30 years he brought international stars to Basel, Switzerland.
Müller launched the “Rheinknie Session” in the ’80s, offering jazz, gospel and blues artists a stage. He expanded the concept in 1998, when he started to invite artists from different genres and sold the naming rights to AVO.
Since 2013 the indoor festival is known as Baloise Session. Every single year, Müller used to stand on stage to welcome the audience personally, except for 2014, when a brain tumor forced him to take a break.
He wished for his lifetime achievement to continue in his spirit after his passing, which is what the festival’s CEO and Mueller’s longtime business partner, Beatrice Strinimann, intends to do.
“It is very important for us to emphasize that,“ she said.
“The administrative board and the whole Baloise Session team will meet this wish and thereby honor his memory,” she is quoted saying by Tageswoche.
Ray Charles, Liza Minnelli, Dionne Warwick, James Brown, Deep Purple, Lionel Richie, Elton John, Pink, Mary J. Blige, Alice Cooper, Rod Stewart, Iggy Pop, Eric Clapton and many more played the Basel festival in the past.