Ensemble of the LUCERNE FESTIVAL ACADEMY

It was in the summer of 2004, that Pierre Boulez and Michael Haefliger founded the LUCERNE FESTIVAL ACADEMY – thus establishing an educational campus devoted exclusively to new music. Every summer since then, some 130 young, highly gifted musicians from all around the world are given the opportunity to study contemporary scores and modernist classics in detail through daily rehearsals, workshops, and lessons and then to present their insights in performance. Serving as instructors are members of the Ensemble intercontemporain from Paris, one of the most renowned ensembles in the field of contemporary music. Besides the LUCERNE FESTIVAL ACADEMY Orchestra, in which all of the students are consolidated, various additional ensembles join together to present their own concert programs. Individual artistic initiative is also encouraged, such as in the series titled LUCERNE FESTIVAL 40min, LUCERNE FESTIVAL Lounge, and at the Buvette, in which Academy participants present projects they have developed on their own. It’s not only instrumentalists who benefit from the Academy’s praxis-oriented training – the institution is also a prime choice for conductors and composers. Each year offers a master class in conducting; in 2014 it will be led by Heinz Holliger, who will initiate participants into the secrets of the métier with works of Claude Debussy and Bernd Alois Zimmermann. In addition to that commissions are given to young composers. In the summer of 2014, the LUCERNE FESTIVAL ACADEMY presents a focus on vocal symphonic music with its performance of Luciano Berio’s Coro and is therefore expanding its training mandate to 40 highly talented young singers. Selected members of the newly formed LUCERNE FESTIVAL ACADEMY Chorus will also have an opportunity to take a master class in voice with “artiste étoile” Barbara Hannigan.

February 2014