20 years of the Lucerne Festival Academy

Happy Birthday! For 20 years, young musical talents from all over the world have been focusing with a spirit of curiosity on the new at the Lucerne Festival Academy.

The 20th anniversary of the Lucerne Festival Academy was celebrated in summer 2024 with a varied program comprising six concerts by the Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra (LFCO), two Composer Seminars, pre-concerts in the KKL foyer, a panel discussion, and tailor-made house concerts – all as part of the Academy’s three-week-long phase of activity, from 17 August to 8 September, in which more than 100 musicians participated.

Pop music has its opening act. For our part, we offered 10-minute pre-concerts featuring musicians from the Lucerne Festival Academy.

Round Table with Michael Haefliger (Executive and Artistic Director of Lucerne Festival), Felix Heri (Director of the Lucerne Festival Academy), Christiane Engelbrecht (Executive Director of the International Ensemble Modern Academy), Estelle Costanzo (harpist and Contemporary Leader of the Lucerne Festival Academy), Johanna Malangré (conductor), and moderator Benjamin Herzog (SRF) on the Academy's anniversary.

Two Composer Seminars to mark the Lucerne Festival Academy's 20th anniversary.

To mark the 20th anniversary of the Lucerne Festival Academy, we raffled off ten concerts to be performed at the winner's home. Soloists from the Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra (LFCO)  performed contemporary solo and duo works.

To mark the occasion, we spoke to people who have been close to the Lucerne Festival Academy over the past twenty years: Alumni, guest artists and leading personalities.