“Reflecting the Streets of New Orleans”

• Musiker*innen des Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra (LFCO)
• Doreen Ketchens clarinet, composer
• Simone Keller concept and composition
• Jessie Cox concept and composition
• Hiromi Gut curator

“Ms New Orleans,” “Lady Louis,” “Queen Clarinet”: these are just some of Doreen Ketchens’s nicknames. In Lucerne, the American clarinetist joins young musicians of the Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra (LFCO). Through workshops and shared performances, they immerse themselves in New Orleans’s rich musical heritage to develop a program over the course of a week – a “work in progress” shaped by exchange between the Old and New Worlds. It explores improvisation, the interplay of playing and marching, and the street as an urban space where people, musical traditions, and history intersect. Composer and percussionist Jessie Cox and pianist-composer Simone Keller bring additional perspectives and experience as Swiss artists. The result is not a folkloristic homage to a bygone America, but a multi-voiced, at times contradictory “American Dream.”

In the Streets: City Stage
Step outside! The music doesn’t happen only at the KKL – it’s taking over all of Lucerne. For six days, from 25 to 30 August, “In the Streets: City Stage” brings the whole city to life with music. We’ve reimagined this “festival within the Festival” to integrate it more closely with our main program. Doreen Ketchens, America’s “Queen Clarinet,” traces the origins of jazz in the melting pot of New Orleans – and so do the Dixie-Ramblers, a Swiss marching band. A yellow hot-air balloon lands in Lucerne, doubling as a pop-up installation and a miniature concert hall. Sound walks along the Musegg Wall sharpen our ears for the city’s diverse soundscape. A percussion quartet captivates with Minimalist rhythms. And the Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra (LFCO) becomes a “Symphonic Jukebox.”