New music academy in Lucerne

Pierre Boulez (Keystone) swissmusic

Lucerne Festival has announced the creation of the Pierre Boulez Academy to teach young and talented musicians the art of interpreting contemporary music.

This joint project with the Lucerne Music Academy is due to get underway during the summer festival in 2004.

In a statement, the festival said the academy would offer practical experience to young musicians dedicated to the music of the 20th and 21st centuries. They will be selected internationally on the basis of auditions after the creation of an international network of music institutions, musicians, and lecturers under the leadership of Boulez, who is this year’s Lucerne Festival composer-in-residence.

For the academy orchestra, annual commissions will be awarded to promising young composers. The creative process is to cover a period of two years, during which they will be given an opportunity to write their own work, and rehearse and refine it with the orchestra.

The academy will succeed the traditional master-classes of the annual festival and the Lucerne Academy of Music. The classes are due to be held for the 60th time in the summer of 2003 and will already then be re-oriented to include new contents in view of the future academy.

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