Michael Haefliger has been announced as the Artistic Advisor of the Kusatsu International Summer Music Academy & Festival in Japan.

The former long-standing Executive and Artistic Director of the Lucerne Festival is known for having shaped one of the world’s most renowned classical music festivals for more than 25 years and is widely recognized for his artistic vision

With the “Three Mountains Project,” conceived and developed by Haefliger, he brings his own programmatic vision to the future direction of the festival and the three locations – Kusatsu, Takasaki, and Karuizawa – will be reimagined as a clearly profiled cultural axis and strategically interconnected.

In a statement Haefliger said, “I have a very strong bond with Japan. My father, the tenor Ernst Haefliger, performed in Kusatsu on several occasions – an experience that had a lasting influence on me.”

Founded in 1980 in Gunma Prefecture, the festival is one of Japan’s leading summer academies. At its core are masterclasses in which internationally renowned artists work closely with young musicians from around the world.