Lea Gasser

​Lea Gasser is a freelance accordionist and composer who grew up in Zurich. Fascinated by the versatility of her instrument, she lets it take on different roles in various projects and gives it a very personal and intimate expression through her own compositions. As leader of her Lea Gasser 5tet, she has been playing her own jazz compositions since 2020. Music that is characterised by catchy and lyrical melodies, cheeky bass lines and dreamy character. The group released its first album L'heure Bleue in 2022 and won the prestigious ZKB Jazzpreis in 2024. The second album "Circles" will be released in autoumn 2025, in collaboration with the label Neuklang. In 2025, Lea also creates her own Solo project, in which she combines the sound of the accordion with effects pedals. She is part of the improvisation quintet The Optics (The Optics 2023) as co-leader, sidewoman of the Thomas Dürst Trio (Thomas Dürst Trio - Other Songs 2021 & Plötzlich ging die Sonne aus (Sibyl Hofstetter, Lea Gasser, Thomas Dürst) 2023) and was Co-founder of the Duo OXEON (Somewhere far 2024). In 2014, the accordionist completed her bachelor's degree in classical music with Teodoro Anzellotti at the HKB in Bern. From 2019-2021, she followed the Master's program in Jazz Performance & Composing at HEMU in Lausanne, with Denis Croisonnier, Matthieu Michel and Philip Henzi. www.leagasser.ch