Lucerne Festival has named Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla artiste étoile for its 2020 Summer Festival. Running from 14 August – 13 September, it is one of the world’s best-known classical music gatherings.
Gražinytė-Tyla, who made her Lucerne debut in 2016, is the first female conductor to be signed to the “star artist” role. She will conduct two concerts with City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, performing works including Saint-Saëns’ First Cello Concerto and Holst’s The Planets. She will then conduct and sing in a late-night concert of Arabic instrumental pieces and songs.
The overall theme for the festival is ‘joy’, with organisers citing Beethoven’s 250th birthday as inspiration: “His music has become a byword for vital energy and conveys a sense of joy and meaning.”
Beethoven highlights beyond Gražinytė-Tyla’s concerts include an opening night with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra under Riccardo Chailly, performing the First Symphony; Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique under John Eliot Gardiner taking on the Ninth; and Gustavo Dudamel conducting the Second Symphony with Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.
Other notable names on the bill are Susanna Mälkki, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, András Schiff, Daniil Trifonov and Kirill Petrenko.
