Music for Future: The Podcast

Children and young people from the Lucerne region take on the role of cultural journalists. They attend school concerts and report on them, write short presentations, and conduct interviews, accompanied and coached by Lucerne Festival. In this way, they come into contact with classical music and process their experiences in short, age-appropriate podcasts. Additional information about our offers for schools and conservatories can be found here. 

A special workshop with Tabula Musica brought new sounds into the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra’s “Orchesterhaus”. Students played with technologically enhanced musical instruments that transform movements, gazes, or touches into sounds. Under the direction of Tabula Musica, a center of excellence that has been pioneering accessibility in the field of music for seven years, instruments developed for and with people with disabilities were deployed.

This workshop is part of “The Big Ensemble,” an inclusive project conducted by Tabula Musica in cooperation with the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts – Music, Lucerne Festival, the Lucerne School of Music, and the KKL Luzern. It will culminate in a performance at the KKL Luzern on 21 January 2025.

In a workshop for people with visual impairments or blindness, musicians from the Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra (LFCO) encouraged participants to have a closer contact with music by composers ranging from Johann Sebastian Bach to Pierre Boulez. The workshop focused on hands-on experiences with a violin, tuba, vibraphone, and many other percussion instruments and culminated in a session of making music together. An array of impressions and opinions about the evening can be heard on the podcast.

Encouraging young audiences is a matter close to the heart of Lucerne Festival. That is why, since 2024, we have been giving all high school graduates in the Canton of Lucerne a voucher for themselves and for a guest to attend a Festival concert of their choice. We met with high school graduates Roberta and Linda following their attendance of the performance by the Czech Philharmonic featuring the star cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason and asked them about their impressions.

The students of class 3C from Emmenbrücke attended the school concert “The Carnival of the Animals” given at the KKL Luzern by the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra and share how they enjoyed the experience, which animals particularly impressed them, and how this kind of concert in a large hall affected them.

As part of “In the Streets,” the world music festival within the Summer Festival, the Malagasy singer Talike Gellé and her band Talike n’Beko played a concert for around 180 students on the grounds of the Unterlöchli School in Lucerne. What did it sound like? We were there!

“With whom is Bach having a row?” Michael, Renate, Toril, and Hanna attended the Family Concert “Krach mit Bach” (“Make a Noise with Bach”) at Lucerne Hall in the KKL and now join together as a reporting team to talk about their Festival experience.

“Do you ever get stage fright?” Norina and Timea were curious about this and much more when they met with Theo Plath, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony’s principal bassoon player, following his school concert at the cantonal school Reussbühl during the 2024 Summer Festival.

Some 20 students from the Lucerne Music School’s Piano Department attended the final concert of the 2024 Piano Fest featuring Igor Levit, Lukas Sternath, Johanna Summer, and members of the Berliner Barock Solisten. During intermission, we met with Anna, Livia, and Annaluisa on the terrace of the KKL Luzern and talked about their impressions. (Interview in German)

Two primary school classes from the Lucerne region attended the opening concert of the Spring Festival. They played Beethoven with newspapers, met Reinhold Friedrich, principal trumpeter of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, and enjoyed the Lucerne Festival Orchestra with Riccardo Chailly. During the intermission, we met up with class 5b from Kriens and spoke with the children and class teacher Rachel Howald.