Four-and-a-half weeks of world class music: experience the legendary conductors, the solo virtuosos, and of course the matchless "parade" of top international orchestras.
2024 Summer Festival: Complete list of concertsGet up close to the music and the stars during the “Summer of Curiosity” in 2024. We want to use many new ideas to encourage connections, break down barriers, and provide exciting insights into how the Festival works. And this is what you can look forward to:
Curiosity | 13 August – 15 September 2024
Welcome!
Have you ever played the lottery using scratch cards? You scratch off the covering that hides the numbers underneath, desperately hoping what you’ll find will win you the main prize. This image is what inspired our visual concept representing the theme of our 2024 Summer Festival, which is “Curiosity.”
The impetus for this theme comes from marking a milestone anniversary. The Lucerne Festival Academy, which Pierre Boulez founded in 2004, turns 20! This campus for contemporary music, from which around 1,500 talented musicians from all over the world have graduated, remains unique to this day. The driving force behind it is curiosity, the hunger for something new. However, this precept is not limited to modern music. The entire history of the art manifests a desire to explore uncharted territory. Considered from an even broader perspective, curiosity is the basic prerequisite for learning and human development, from earliest childhood to old age.
Which is why we will have a special focus on education. We want to encourage you to get to know more, to arouse your curiosity about music. As always, you can look forward to enjoying moving musical experiences, to seeing the classical music scene’s top stars and finest international orchestras. But we will also be giving the artists themselves more of a chance to have their say through meet-and-greets and interviews during the concerts as well as post-concert talks. Music is a human art. It creates connections and thrives on closeness and participation.
Who knows: if we were all more curious about what is unknown, different, foreign – perhaps there would be no more room for prejudice and hatred. Particularly in these less-peaceful times, the theme of “Curiosity” may therefore also be the key to a better world.
Opening on 16 August
This year, we are dispensing with the keynote speech. Instead, there will be an unconventional performance by members of the Lucerne Festival Academy to kick off the celebrations of the Academy’s 20th birthday.
Pre-Concerts
Featuring musicians from the Lucerne Festival Academy in the KKL Luzern’s Concert Hall lounge:
Pop music has its opening act. For our part, we offer a 10-minute pre-concert. Allow us to surprise you!
Post-Concert Talks
In the KKL Luzern’s Concert Hall lounge, following the afternoon or evening concert:
Do you have questions about what you have just heard? We’ll try to answer them – together with artists who have just appeared onstage.
Live Critics’ Round Table Discussions
In the KKL Luzern lounge, following the evening concert:
Listening in detail: the Critics’ Round Table of Radio SRF 2 Kultur listened closely and share their commentary on the performance.
Concert Introductions
with Susanne Stähr (in German) | KKL Luzern, Auditorium:
Further concert introductions (in German):
Backstage Specials
What actually happens at 7 in the morning during the Festival at the KKL Luzern? What happens backstage after the concert?
And what happens at 3 pm? We are offering three backstage specials for a limited number of participants. We will publish the dates on our website in July 2024. You can also register here.
Getting Closer to the Artists
At many concerts, the artists themselves will greet you on the stage and tell you what to expect. Or they will follow the performance as moderators. Or there will be a short spotlight on the program before it starts in the Concert Hall. We will publish the dates on our website in July 2024
Podium Discussion “20 Years of the Lucerne Festival Academy”
Sat 17. August | 15.00 | “20 Years of the Lucerne Festival Academy”
Round Table (in German) with
Concerts at Home by the Lucerne Festival Academy
20 years – 20 minutes: Experience the sound of the present in your living room.
To mark the 20th anniversary of the Lucerne Festival Academy, we are raffling off ten concerts, each lasting 20 minutes, to be performed at your own home. Soloists from the Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra (LFCO) will perform contemporary solo and duo works. What exactly will be played? Get ready for a surprise!
Submissions are unfortunately now closed. We will be happy to draw names for each of the ten concerts from all the entries we have received and inform the lucky winners in the next few days.
Lucerne Festival is more than just the symphony concerts in the evening. The popular live broadcast of the Opening Concert in Inseli Park, the exciting open-air performances of "In the Streets," special church services, lectures and panel discussions, and, of course, the brief concerts of the 40min series give the entire city a Festival atmosphere.
They are not only the audience of tomorrow but the listeners of today: Lucerne Festival appeals to children and families, schools and young adults through special concert formats and offerings suitable for every age group.