Lucerne Festival Forward 2022 once again stands for innovation and new ideas. Four performances will turn the conventional rules of the traditional concert business upside down. 18 Contemporary Leaders, all former participants in the Lucerne Festival Academy, will curate the events of this experimental fall festival. As was the case last year, it will be led by Contemporary director Felix Heri and dramaturge Mark Sattler. Violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja will also join the creative team for a Saturday evening project. Four carefully designed sonic events will be offered.

“New sounds, formats, concepts — Forward is our crazy playground for experimental concert experiences,” remarks Michael Haefliger, Executive and Artistic Director of Lucerne Festival. “The creative team of our Academy network brings international know-how regarding the new music scene to Lucerne, which will be complemented by a first-class contribution from Patricia Kopatchinskaja.”

On Friday evening, the opening concert in the Planetarium at the Swiss Museum of Transport will combine visual and sonic worlds of the micro- and macrocosm with a 360-degree video installation and the oscillating sounds of a string quartet by Anna Thorvaldsdottir. On Saturday evening, violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja will present a thoroughly staged sonic journey that explores György Ligeti’s Violin Concerto. Together with the 18 Contemporary Leaders, she will compose a concert collage enriched by four world premieres that musically embark on a search for “Ligeti’s lost melody.” In a subsequent “Late Night” concert at the Neubad Luzern, soloists and ensembles of the Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra (LFCO) will explore the sonic possibilities of this location, which is designed around what used to be a swimming pool, using precise playing instructions, improvisation, and interaction with the audience.

The fourth concert on Sunday evening will focus on Unsuk Chin’s Gougalón (Scenes from a Street Theater), which the Korean composer describes as “imaginary folklore.” Musicians from the LFCO will alternate the six movements with new works that expand the concept of the evening through theatrical, experimental approaches. And at the end of this concert and of the entire festival, a large-scale participatory action that involves mopping, sweeping, and vacuuming will take place. Ein sauberes Ende (“A Clean End”) is the name of the clean-up performance by the artistic team led by Lucerne-based composer Urban Mäder, in which anyone can participate. Registration is possible starting on 1 August via lucernefestival.ch/acleanend. A workshop concert for children on Sunday afternoon completes the lineup for the Lucerne Festival Forward 2022 and the next generation of listeners.