Philip Bartels, piano Duri Collenberg, piano Simone Keller, piano Lukas Rickli, piano Based in Switzerland, the Kukuruz Quartet— 4 pianists on 4 pianos — is a close-knit group of divergent artistic personalities, all trained in disparate musical fields: Simone Keller is a versatile pianist in contemporary and classical music, Philip Bartels is an experimental theater stage director, Duri Collenberg studied composition in Amsterdam, and Lukas Rickli has broad experience in improvisation. They are equally at home on theater stages, concert halls, clubs, bars, office buildings, and studios. The ensemble was founded in 2014 in a corn field — Kukuruz means "corn" in several languages. These four pianists were first seen and heard making their contribution to a production by musician and theater director Ruedi Häusermann at the Zurich Schauspielhaus. From the outset, the group has been engaged with classical music, jazz, and improvisation.