Media Release
Basel, 15 September 2003
First Roche
Commission goes to composer Sir Harrison Birtwistle
Roche marks start of new cultural
initiative with presentation ceremony in Buonas
Roche today officially launched its novel cultural sponsorship project Roche Commissions with a ceremony at Roche Forum Buonas, Lake Zug, Switzerland. Roche Chairman and CEO Franz B. Humer presented the first Roche Commission for a new musical work to the renowned British composer Sir Harrison Birtwistle. The work will be performed for the first time on 20 August 2004 at the Lucerne Culture and Congress Centre during the Lucerne Summer Festival. The US premiere at New York’s Carnegie Hall is planned for 2 February 2005.
Speaking at the ceremony, Mr Humer said, ‘I am delighted that we have been able to gain the support of one the most original and successful composers of our time for the launch of this project. Roche Commissions underscores our Company’s long-standing support for contemporary artists and cultural projects. There are close natural links between innovation in the arts and innovation in a research-oriented company like Roche. In both settings innovation is about having the courage to strike out in new directions and about pursuing unconventional solutions, quality and excellence’.
In August this year Roche, the Lucerne Festival and Carnegie Hall, in partnership with The Cleveland Orchestra, announced that they had agreed to cooperate on a novel cultural sponsorship project to be known as Roche Commissions. Each year, Roche will commission a work by an outstanding contemporary composer. The composers will be selected by Roche based on recommendations by the artistic directors of the Lucerne Festival, Carnegie Hall and The Cleveland Orchestra. Each commissioned work will have its world premiere at the Lucerne Summer Festival and will be performed for the first time in the United States at Carnegie Hall during the concert season starting later that year. Both concerts will be performed by The Cleveland Orchestra, conducted by Franz Welser-Möst.
For Roche the project continues a long tradition of support for the arts. It will be the first time that internationally renowned composers of contemporary music and leading cultural institutions on two continents collaborate in a joint project.
Harrison Birtwistle, the first Roche Commissions composer, was born in England in 1934 and is one of the world’s greatest and most original composers. After spells as a Visiting Professor at universities in the United States, he was appointed Music Director of the National Theatre and, later, Director of Composition at the Royal Academy of Music in London. In 1988 he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth. His most outstanding works include the operas Punch and Judy and The Last Supper, the orchestral work Earth Dances and the song cycle Pulse Shadows, based on poems by Paul Celan.
Roche
Headquartered
in Basel, Switzerland, Roche is one of the world’s leading innovation-driven healthcare groups. Its
core businesses are pharmaceuticals and diagnostics. Roche is number one in the global diagnostics market,
the leading supplier of pharmaceuticals for cancer and a leader in virology and transplantation medicine.
As a supplier of products and services for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease, the Group
contributes on a broad range of fronts to improving people’s health and quality of life. Roche employs
roughly 65,000 people in over 150 countries. The Group has alliances and research and development agreements
with numerous partners, including majority ownership interests in Genentech and Chugai. In addition
to its active involvement in humanitarian projects, Roche has a long history of supporting the arts,
particularly modern classical music and the modern visual arts. In 1996, for example, to mark its centenary,
Roche funded the construction of Basel’s Jean Tinguely Museum, designed by Mario Botta. The company
provides full operational funding for the museum.
The Lucerne
Festival
The Lucerne Festival began with a memorable Concert de
Gala conducted by Arturo Toscanini in 1938 in front of Villa Tribschen, once the residence of
Richard Wagner. Since then it has become one of the major international music festivals, hosting performances
by outstanding orchestras, conductors and soloists from around the world. Today, the Lucerne Festival
sees itself not only as an organiser of world-class concerts in the traditional sense but also as a
venue for presenting contemporary works of music to a wider audience and for cultural events indirectly
related to music. There are three Lucerne Music Festivals each year: an Easter festival (begun in 1988),
a summer festival (begun in 1938) and a piano festival (begun in 1998).
Carnegie
Hall
Carnegie Hall, hailed as ‘the concert hall of the century’ by Musical America,
features the world’s greatest soloists, ensembles and orchestras in its renowned Isaac Stern Auditorium,
the new Zankel Hall and the intimate Weill Recital Hall. The legendary venue presents over 160 events
each year and produces such acclaimed concert series as Perspectives, Making Music, Distinctive Debuts
and Carnegie Talks. Carnegie Hall continues to break new ground as it emerges as a national leader in
arts education by offering innovative education programmes that reach a wide variety of audiences –
from preschoolers to adults, music lovers to emerging professionals – and serve those from New York
City and throughout the United States. The opening in September 2003 of a third venue at Carnegie Hall,
the new, intermediate-sized Judy and Arthur Zankel Hall, will allow the Hall to expand its programming
– Zankel Hall’s first season will include over 80 classical, jazz, pop and world music concerts – and
will pave the way for new opportunities as Carnegie Hall continues to be an international cultural centre
representing the very best in musical performance, appreciation and education.
Cleveland
Orchestra
Long considered one of America’s great orchestras, The Cleveland Orchestra,
founded in 1918, stands today among the world’s most-revered symphonic ensembles. In concerts at home
in Severance Hall and at Blossom Music Center, on tour, in radio and television broadcasts, and in its
critically-admired discography, The Cleveland Orchestra continues to set standards of performance excellence
and imaginative programming that serve as models for audiences and performers alike. Franz Welser-Möst
began his tenure as the Orchestra’s seventh Music Director in September 2002, succeeding Nikolai Sokoloff,
Artur Rodzinski, Erich Leinsdorf, George Szell, Lorin Maazel and Christoph von Dohnányi. Mr Welser-Möst’s
first season as Music Director has included world-premiere performances of Cleveland Orchestra-commissioned
works, a domestic tour of the Midwest, and one of the East Coast that included a Carnegie Hall residency.
In October 2003, the Orchestra will begin biennial residencies at the Musikverein in Vienna. The first
of regular European summer festival tours will begin in August 2004, including concerts at the Lucerne
Festival, the Edinburgh Festival and the Proms in London. The Cleveland Orchestra has begun a new era
under Franz Welser-Möst’s guidance, while maintaining a steadfast commitment to its long-held traditions
of artistic excellence, educational outreach and community service.
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