Thurgau Culture Prize 2015 goes to Mathias Zogg
This year's Thurgau Culture Prize will be awarded to the singer, conductor and composer Mathias Zogg. With the prize, which is endowed with CHF 20,000, the cantonal government is recognizing the prizewinner's achievements in the field of yodelling.
Mathias Zogg has dedicated himself to yodelling for over 50 years - as a singer, conductor, teacher and, from 1968, also as a composer, writes the canton of Thurgau. He now has around one hundred compositions that are very popular with yodelling choirs throughout Switzerland.
Zogg's breakthrough came in 1980 with his yodelling song "Kamerade", which is one of the best-known Swiss yodelling songs and was one of the most sung yodelling songs in Switzerland for many years. Mathias Zogg made an important contribution to the yodelling scene in the canton of Thurgau and throughout Switzerland with his commitment as conductor of various choirs in Eastern Switzerland and as a juror at regional and national yodelling festivals, the canton added.
Mathias Zogg was born on January 12, 1939 in Chur and spent his youth in Tamins. After living in the Basel region for a short time, where he also practised yodelling, he moved to St. Pelagiberg with his wife Heidi in 1967, where he still lives today. In 1980, he surprised everyone at the yodelling festival in Gossau with his yodelling song "Kamerade". The composition was nominated by Suisa as the most sung yodelling song for twelve consecutive years. On the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Northeast Swiss Yodelling Association, he won the corresponding composition competition in 2007. Together with his wife, he publishes his works in his own publishing house "Bärgröseli".
