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

Founded by Pierre Boulez and Michael Haefliger in 2004, the Lucerne Festival Academy offers over 100 participants the unique opportunity to spend three weeks intensively studying contemporary music. Wolfgang Rihm, who succeeded Pierre Boulez as director of the Academy, has implemented the Composer Seminar as a permanent and important part of the Lucerne Festival Academy since 2016.

Eight composers have the opportunity to spend two weeks discussing their works with Wolfgang Rihm and Dieter Ammann in a theoretical section in a group and in individual lessons and to work on and perform ensemble works written especially for the Composer Seminar with the IEMA Ensemble in a practical section.

To mark the 20th anniversary of the Lucerne Festival Academy, there will be a second Composer Seminar for orchestra in 2024: Four composers will be given the opportunity to work on and perform specially composed works with the Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra (LFCO). This initiative by Wolfgang Rihm combines the uniqueness of an orchestra academy as part of one of the largest orchestra festivals in the world with the Composer Seminar initiative. As with the Composer Seminar for ensemble, the works are supervised by the four conductors of the Contemporary Conducting Program. A unique opportunity for which you can still apply until 4 December 2023.