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{\pard\sa900\fs50\f0\i Media Release\par}

{\pard\f0\li0\ri0\sa360\sl360\fs22 Basel, 27. August, 2010\par}
{\pard\f0\sl360\fs22\b 6th Roche Commission goes to Sofia Gubaidulina\par}
{\pard\f0\li0\ri0\sa360\sl360\fs22 World premiere of \u8220?Woven Dreams\u8221? by Toshio Hosokawa on August 28th at Lucerne Summer Festival \par}
{\pard\f0\li0\ri0\sa360\sl360\fs22 This Saturday, Roche will be presenting its 6th Commission to a contemporary composer. Together with the Lucerne Festival, the Cleveland Orchestra and Carnegie Hall, Roche has decided to commission a sixth piece of music in the Roche Commission series to Sofia Gubaidulina.\par}
{\pard\f0\li0\ri0\sa360\sl360\fs22 Sofia Gubaidulina was born in Chistopol in the Tatar Republic of the Soviet Union in 1931. In Moscow, she undertook studies at the Conservatory with Nikolay Peyko until 1959 and with Shebalin until 1963. Her music was deemed "irresponsible" during her studies in Soviet Russia, due to its exploration of alternative tunings. She was supported, however, by Dmitiri Shostakovich, who in evaluating her final examination encouraged her to continue. Since 1992, she has made her primary residence in Germany. Gubaidulina's compositional interests have been stimulated by the tactile exploration and improvisation with rare Russian, Caucasian, and Asian folk and ritual instruments collected by the "Astreia" ensemble, of which she was a co-founder, by the rapid absorption and personalization of contemporary Western musical techniques and by a deep-rooted belief in the mystical properties of music.\par}
{\pard\f0\li0\ri0\sa360\sl360\fs22 Franz B. Humer, Chairman of the Board, said: \u8220?We are very pleased that Sofia Gubaidulina accepted our Commission and are looking forward to hear her music in two years from now. Roche Commissions is a seamless continuation of Roche\u8217?s traditional commitment to culture. Curiosity and open minds are needed in both music and research and it was exciting to offer Sofia Gubaidulina a visit to our research labs. The lively discussions between the composer and our scientists were very rewarding\u8221?.\par}
{\pard\f0\li0\ri0\sa360\sl360\fs22 The fifth Roche Commissions award was granted two years ago to the Japanese composer Toshio Hosokawa. His Roche Commission work \u8220?Woven Dreams\u8221? for orchestra will be performed tomorrow evening as a world premiere at the Lucerne Festival in the city\u8217?s Culture and Congress Center. It will be premiered in New York at Carnegie Hall on 4. February. 2011.\par}
{\pard\f0\sl360\fs22\b About Roche Commissions\par}
{\pard\f0\li0\ri0\sa360\sl360\fs22 In 2003 Roche, the Lucerne Festival, the Cleveland Orchestra and Carnegie Hall entered into a pioneering international partnership for the advancement of the arts. Under the terms of the partnership, Roche will regularly commission a new work from an outstanding contemporary composer. Each work will be premiered at the Lucerne Festival, Summer followed by a US premiere at Carnegie Hall New York City during the subsequent concert season.\par}
{\pard\f0\li0\ri0\sa360\sl360\fs22 Roche Commissions was launched to offer artists in contemporary music the challenge and opportunity to forge new frontiers in their special field, just as we encourage our scientists to pursue unconventional solutions in healthcare. Roche Commissions combines the innovation in the arts and the innovation in medicine.\par}
{\pard\f0\li0\ri0\sa360\sl360\fs22 Roche Commissions embodies the key features of Roche\u8217?s long-standing involvement in cultural activities. By working together, the programme\u8217?s partners each contribute to creating something new and innovative which none of them would have been able to create alone. \par}
{\pard\f0\li0\ri0\sa360\sl360\fs22 An innovative process is facilitated that not only benefits music lovers but also allows a wide group of Roche scientists and their scientific peers from outside the company to participate. Works of enduring value are created which venture beyond the mainstream and provide a source of intellectual stimulation and challenge - very much in the spirit of Pierre Boulez\u8217?s exhortation to Roche\u8217?s guests in 2000 to keep their minds open to new things \u8220?because a life without curiosity is boring\u8221?.\par}
{\pard\f0\sl360\fs22\b About Roche\par}
{\pard\f0\li0\ri0\sa360\sl360\fs22 Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Roche is a leader in research-focused healthcare with combined strengths in pharmaceuticals and diagnostics. Roche is the world\u8217?s largest biotech company with truly differentiated medicines in oncology, virology, inflammation, metabolism and CNS. Roche is also the world leader in in-vitro diagnostics, tissue-based cancer diagnostics and a pioneer in diabetes management. Roche\u8217?s personalised healthcare strategy aims at providing medicines and diagnostic tools that enable tangible improvements in the health, quality of life and survival of patients. In 2009, Roche had over 80\u8217?000 employees worldwide and invested almost 10 billion Swiss francs in R&D. The Group posted sales of 49.1 billion Swiss francs. Genentech, United States, is a wholly owned member of the Roche Group. Roche has a majority stake in Chugai Pharmaceutical, Japan. For more information: www.roche.com.\par}
{\pard\f0\li0\ri0\sa360\sl360\fs18 All trademarks used or mentioned in this release are protected by law.\par}
{\pard\f0\sa120\sl360\fs30\i Additional information\par}
{\pard\f0\li440\ri0\sl360\fs22 - Lucerne Festival (http://www.lucernefestival.ch)\par}
{\pard\f0\li440\ri0\sl360\fs22 - Cleveland Orchestra (http://www.clevelandorch.com)\par}
{\pard\f0\li440\ri0\sl360\fs22 - Carnegie Hall (http://www.carnegiehall.org)\par}\line 
{\pard\f0\sa120\sl360\fs30\i Downloads\par}
{\pard\f0\li440\ri0\sl360\fs22 - Pictures (http://download.roche.com/selection/commissions2010/)\par}\line 

{\pard \par}
{\pard\sb180\f1\fs22 {\b F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd}\line 4070 Basel\line Switzerland \par}
{\pard\sb180\f1\fs22 Corporate Communications\line Roche Group Media Relations \par}
{\pard\sb180\f1\fs22 Tel. +41 61 688 88 88\line Fax +41 61 688 27 75\line www.roche.com \par}
}