Commission to Jessie Cox

For the first concert of the Lucerne Festival Academy in summer 2023, Jessie Cox will compose a work for orchestra, which will be premiered together with works by Georg Lewis and Peter Ruzicka by the Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra in Lucerne, conducted by Ilan Volkov. The commission of Jessie Cox for the Lucerne Festival is made possible by the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation.

The programme of the Lucerne Festival Academy includes works that challenge the participants and academy members both artistically and socially. Among others, the work Minds in Flux for orchestra and electronics, composed in 2021 by George Lewis – undoubtedly one of the most important African-American representatives of contemporary music – will be performed. The work by the trombonist and composer was premiered at the Proms in London with the BBC Scottish Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Ilan Volkov. Volkov will also conduct the Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra at the concerts in Lucerne. Based on Minds in Flux, the Lucerne Festival commissioned an orchestral piece from the Swiss composer Jessie Cox, who studies with George Lewis in New York. In his music, Jessie Cox deals not only with his own forms of organising sounds, but also with socio-political themes, especially the discrimination of people of colour in our society. He is interested in the future, curious in his music and a celebrated visionary in his field. The programme is complemented by Spiral – Concerto for Horn Quartet and Orchestra by Peter Ruzicka.

Further information:
lucernefestival.ch

Date

August 19, 2023
Lucerne Hall, KKL Lucerne