Name: “Reflecting the Streets of New Orleans”
Start: 2026-08-26T19:00:00
Location: Kapellplatz

Doreen Ketchens

Lucerne Festival

The piercing call of the carnyx likely sounded across Lake Lucerne more than 2,000 years ago, when Celtic tribes settled in Central Switzerland. Liza Lim has composed a concerto for this ancient bronze trumpet, nearly two meters long, asking herself “how ancient lineages of human and more-than-human creativity reside in bodies, cultural artefacts and the Deep Time histories of place, carrying seeds of resilience and also potential danger that may yet bloom again.” Far less exotic is the second solo instrument of the evening, the clarinet. Yet composer-in-residence Mark Andre — inspired by extensive sound experiments with Jörg Widmann — coaxes from it a wealth of entirely new timbres. 

Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra (LFCO) | Elim Chan

KKL Luzern Concert Hall

“Ms New Orleans,” “Lady Louis,” “Queen Clarinet”: these are just some of Doreen Ketchens’s nicknames. In Lucerne, the American clarinetist joins young musicians of the Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra (LFCO). Through workshops and shared performances, they immerse themselves in New Orleans’s rich musical heritage to develop a program over the course of a week – a “work in progress” shaped by exchange between the Old and New Worlds.