Forward 2026

One of my first steps as Executive and Artistic Director of Lucerne Festival was to turn to Jörg Widmann, the fantastic musician, composer, and curator. I wanted to entrust him with the leadership of the Lucerne Festival Academy, as successor to his teacher Wolfgang Rihm. I could not imagine anyone better than Jörg for this challenging task. He has an enormous knowledge of music history and the generosity of spirit to present a wide variety of styles — quite independently of his own compositional aesthetic — and to reflect what is currently happening in the new music scene.

In November 2026, Jörg Widmann will also lead Lucerne Festival Forward, our extended weekend devoted to contemporary music. We soon agreed to develop the existing format further and to add new points of emphasis. We will have our first concert in Vitznau’s acoustically outstanding chamber music hall, where Jörg Widmann will perform with pianist András Schiff and violist Antoine Tamestit. We will also use the KKL Lucerne Concert Hall in a somewhat different way than usual. In Johanna Summer’s Late Night event, for example, the audience will sit both onstage and in the organ loft, creating an especially intimate setting. You can also experience Jörg Widmann’s brilliance as a communicator when he gives a lecture at the piano. The topic is Robert Schumann and his influence on contemporary music, with many musical examples.

And that brings us to the underlying programmatic idea. We have named the 2026 edition of Forward “Echoes of Schumann.” We want to bridge the gap between the old and the new, to show how modern Schumann was and how much today’s generation can still benefit from him. Because without the past, there is no future.

We look forward to seeing you.

Warmly,

Sebastian Nordmann
Executive and Artistic Director Lucerne Festival