(Credit: Marco Borggreve)

Jörg Widmann has been announced as the Artistic Director of the Lucerne Festival Academy in 2026.

Widmann will succeed Wolfgang Rihm, who passed away last year.

In a statement, Widmann stated, “To have the opportunity to carry forward the tradition of championing contemporary music at Lucerne Festival – established by Pierre Boulez and Wolfgang Rihm – is a significant responsibility and a great honor. I look forward to embedding contemporary music even more deeply in our programming and to offering the best possible opportunities and performance conditions for emerging composers, instrumentalists, and conductors.”

Widmann is a composer whose works have been premiered and regularly performed by leading orchestras worldwide, including the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Vienna Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and the Cleveland Orchestra.

The Lucerne Festival Academy has been a central pillar of the Lucerne Festival. As a master school in the field of contemporary music, it is a globally unique institution comprising a network of more than 1,500 instrumentalists, conductors, and composers. The Academy for the coming summer of 2025 was planned by Wolfgang Rihm together with the Lucerne Festival Academy team, with a focus on celebrating the 100th birthday of founder Pierre Boulez.

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