A well-known radio voice has fallen silent
Walter Kläy, radio journalist and painter, died on July 12 in Bern.
The media landscape is changing rapidly, but voices continue to resonate for a long time. And if they have accompanied and explained music, they are associated with listening pleasure. One such voice is associated with the name of Walter Kläy (born 7 March 1941), who was present for decades in the music programmes of DRS2 (and subsequently SRF2 Kultur), as a designer and presenter, but also as the organizer of the almost legendary "Late-night concerts in Studio Bern". One of his main focuses was Russian music, for which he was awarded the Zurich Radio Foundation Prize in 1993 (together with Thomas Adank). And the Bern Symphony Orchestra and the Camerata Bern have repeatedly asked him to give concert introductions in order to satisfy the noticeably increasing demand for hearing aids. He acquired his skills at the Hofwil-Bern Teachers' Seminar and with Theo Hirsbrunner (music theory) at the Bern Conservatory. At the Hofwil seminar, however, it was also the painter Walter Simon who encouraged him to take up painting. As a painter, he cultivated various techniques and presented them in numerous exhibitions with his paintings in acrylic or egg tempera.
He died in Bern on July 12, 2022 after suffering from severe cancer.
