Since it was founded in 2003, more than 1,200 instrumentalists, conductors, and composers from over 60 countries have taken part in the LUCERNE FESTIVAL ACADEMY. Its graduates have included such renowned artists as the JACK Quartet and the Mivos Quartets and the conductors Pablo Heras-Casado and Kevin John Edusei, as well as many musicians who today have careers as members of internationally renowned orchestras, perform in the field of chamber music and experimental projects, or teach at universities. Most of them remain closely associated with the Festival. As LUCERNE FESTIVAL ALUMNI, selected former Academy students regularly return to Lucerne, enriching the programming through performances in the area of contemporary music, participation in the 40min series, or collaborations in productions by LUCERNE FESTIVAL YOUNG, as well as by providing advice and support to current Academy students. Aided by the Alumni platform, they also stay in contact with each other in order to collaboratively realize their own projects worldwide. This has created a unique international network of young musicians. The first project presented by the Alumni was in the 2013-14 season under the motto “Music at Risk” and involved four world premieres in New York, London, Beijing, Zurich, and Lucerne. One of the highlights of recent years has been the three-part concert series “Ligeti Forward,” with which the Alumni made a guest appearance at the NY Phil Biennial in 2016 under the direction of Alan Gilbert. In 2017 they toured Germany and Switzerland with the Swiss jazz singer Andreas Schaerer, his band Hildegard Lernt Fliegen, and the project titled “The Big Wig.” And in March 2018 they joined with the Ensemble intercontemporain to perform Olivier Messiaen’s “Des canyons aux étoiles” in Paris, Brussels, and Luxembourg, as well as at the Easter Festival in Lucerne.
www.lucernefestival.ch/en/lucerne-festival-alumni
As of May 2020