Ladies and Gentlemen,
dear music friends,

from composition to performance music lives on the creative force of the people involved. Originality and authenticity are the source of its fascination and, at the same time, a mirror of the personality of the artists – both the original creators and the performers of the works. A concert evening, however, is wholly successful only if it enjoys the active participation of the audience: the ever-new fascination of a live concert is realised in the moment when the music is heard in a specifically chosen setting that is aesthetically pleasing and functionally optimal – listening, too, is a genuinely creative process.

The seventh season at the Philharmonie continues the house’s tradition of building on outstanding artistic quality. To this end we invite rightly famous conductors, soloists, ensembles and orchestras from all round the world together with strong, new personalities. The latter will have a chance to be discovered and to prove themselves to Luxembourg’s experienced audiences. The philharmonic orchestra of the Grand Duchy, the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg and its chief conductor Emmanuel Krivine form the backbone of orchestral activities at the Philharmonie. No other orchestra is so strongly linked to the land’s culture and history. Sustained by a broad circle of music lovers in Luxembourg and far beyond, the OPL, in close partnership with the Philharmonie, will play a very important and very visible role. The forthcoming structural and organisational fusion of the OPL and the Philharmonie, up to now two independent institutions, will not stop long-standing music partners like the Solistes Européens Luxembourg, the United Instruments of Lucilin, the Noise Watchers, the LGNM or the Orchestre de Chambre du Luxembourg from maintaining their relationship and considering the Philharmonie their home.

Significant space and importance will also be dedicated to the music of the present-day in all its many genres. Opinions on contemporary music vary, as they do in the field of art. This indeed is a good thing, for contemporary art leads us to adopt a variety of stances. In our perception of this art each of us attributes to it the space we personally consider suitable.