Music, Arts & Architecture

Roche has been an active patron of contemporary art and cultural projects since it was founded in 1896 — a heritage reflecting the influence of the founder’s family. This side of corporate giving has tended to focus most strongly on music, but also includes support for the visual arts and architecture. Roche sees close affinities between innovation in the arts and in a research-based company like itself. Roche is convinced that the contemporary culture enriches our employees’ daily lives and contributes to making Roche an innovative company.

Most Roche employees work in an environment where original works of contemporary art are ‘part of the atmosphere’. Distinctive modern architecture in the Bauhaus tradition has been one of the hallmarks of roche’s sites since Otto Salvisberg created the first master plan for Roche Basel and defined the architectural idiom that still shapes the way we build today. Roche buildings are also designed for transparency and flexibility, so that they can be adapted to changing circumstances without compromising their architectural integrity. Roche Basel’s new research and biotech production buildings, both designed by Herzog & de Meuron, are recent examples of a responsible approach to site development.

Launched in 2003, Roche Commissions regularly awards commissions for new musical works by outstanding contemporary composers. Roche selects the composer on the basis of recommendations made by the artistic directors of the Lucerne Festival, Carnegie Hall and the Cleveland Orchestra. The commissioned work is premiered by the Cleveland Orchestra, conducted by Franz Welser-Möst, at the Lucerne Festival, SOMMER. The following season, the same orchestra performs it for the first time in the United States at Carnegie Hall. Informal contacts and discussions between the composers and Roche scientists form an essential part of the project, highlighting the parallels between innovation in art and in science and the challenges of doing creative work in any area.

To mark its centenary in 1996, Roche donated a museum featuring the work of the Swiss sculptor Jean Tingley to its home city of Basel. The museum, designed by the famous Swiss architect Mario Botta, is located close to Roche headquarters, in Basel’s historic Solitude Park, overlooking the Rhine River.

The Salzburg Festival and Roche have established a joint cultural project in the area of contemporary music: The “Salzburg contemporary” series invites audiences at the Salzburg Festival on a journey of discovery through the compositional and aesthetic universe of prominent 20th/21st century composers.

This collaboration between Roche and the Salzburg Festival primarily allows European university and college students to attend contemporary music events in Salzburg, and attempts to uncover the link between innovation in music and art on the one hand and science on the other.

Roche is supporting the “Salzburg contemporary” project at the Salzburg Festival as part of its commitment to contemporary music and art and is making a substantial financial contribution that allows a ticket price reduction of up to 50%. Roche also coordinates the promotion of “Salzburg contemporary” at university and college level via its own networks and channels and runs a project specifically aimed at upcoming young scientists, “Roche Continents – Youth! Arts! Science!”. As part of this project, up to 100 students of science, music and the arts from all over Europe is given the opportunity to spend a week in Salzburg exploring various topics from the world of art and science in a series of workshops.