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Basel,
16 November 2006
Ground-breaking partnership encourages access to innovation
in music and science for young people
The
Salzburg Festival and Roche are to establish a joint cultural
project in the area of contemporary music: The new “Continents...”
series will invite audiences at the Salzburg Festival
on a journey of discovery through the compositional and
aesthetic universe of prominent 20th/21st century composers.
This collaboration between Roche and the Salzburg Festival
will primarily allow European university and college students
to attend contemporary music events in Salzburg, and will
attempt to uncover the link between innovation in music
and art on the one hand and science on the other. In addition,
new communication channels will be opened up, giving both
the Salzburg Festival and Roche access to interesting
new target groups.
Roche
is supporting the “Continents...” project at
the Salzburg Festival as part of its commitment to contemporary
music and art and is making a substantial financial contribution
that will allow a ticket price reduction of more than
30% for the next five years. Roche will also coordinate
the marketing of “Continents...” at university
and college level via its own networks and channels and
will run a project specifically aimed at upcoming young
scientists, “Roche Continents – Youth! Arts!
Science!”. As part of this project, up to 100 students
of science, music and the arts from around the globe will
be given the opportunity to spend a week in Salzburg exploring
various topics from the world of art and science in a
series of workshops.
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Speaking
of the project, Franz B. Humer, Board Chairman and CEO of Roche,
said: “I am absolutely delighted that Roche is able to collaborate
with the Salzburg Festival in launching ‘Continents...’.
This new partnership is a good match with our other successful projects
in the area of innovative contemporary music: Roche Commissions
in Switzerland and the United States, and the international Roche’n’Jazz
initiative. Through this new project we aim to encourage young people
to explore different aspects of contemporary music and in this way
to indirectly heighten their fascination with innovation in general,
and scientific innovation in particular."
Helga Rabl-Stadler,
President of the Salzburg Festival comments: “Thanks to Roche,
the Festival and Markus Hinterhäuser, who came up with the
idea for ‘Continents…’ and who will be responsible
for programming the concerts, can pick up where the successful
‘Zeitfluss’ tradition of the 1990s left off. From 2007,
there will once again be a ‘festival within the festival’.
With its generous five-year commitment, Roche has secured the
budget for an important piece of programming. But Roche also stands
to gain from its sponsorship of the project. A critical confrontation
with New Music can give people the courage to change various aspects
of their lives. Young scientists will recognise that art is the
real arena in which ideas are being developed today.”
“Continents...”
will get underway in summer 2007 with the works of the Italian
transcendental composer Giacinto Scelsi. Scelsi (1905-1988) was
one of the leading exponents of 20th century music. The poetry
of Scelsi's music – and this is particularly true of his
solo pieces, originally for piano, but later for a whole variety
of instruments – is derived from its supreme concentration
on a single note and the timbral variations which slowly unfold
and evolve. In 2008, the “Continents…” series will
focus on Salvatore Sciarrino and in 2009 on Iannis Xanakis.
About Roche
Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Roche is one of the world’s
leading research-focused healthcare groups in the fields of pharmaceuticals
and diagnostics. As a supplier of innovative products and services
for the early detection, prevention, diagnosis and treatment of
disease, the Group contributes on a broad range of fronts to improving
people’s health and quality of life. Roche is a world leader
in diagnostics, the leading supplier of medicines for cancer and
transplantation and a market leader in virology. In 2005 sales
by the Pharmaceuticals Division totalled 27.3 billion Swiss francs,
and the Diagnostics Division posted sales of 8.2 billion Swiss
francs. Roche employs roughly 70,000 people in 150 countries.
In addition to supporting a large number of humanitarian projects
and promoting scientific research, it has a long-standing commitment
to contemporary art as a means of expressing innovation. Thus
Roche has provided funding for the Mario Botta-designed Museum
Tinguely in Basel since 1996. It also sponsors Roche Commissions,
a joint project with the Lucerne Festival, Carnegie Hall and Cleveland
Orchestra involving the commissioning and public premiere of new
works by contemporary composers, as well as promoting challenging
jazz through its international Roche’n’Jazz initiative.
Additional information about the Roche Group is available on the
Internet at www.roche.com.
All trademarks used or mentioned in this release
are protected by law.
Further information
- Roche
cultural sponsorship
- Salzburg
Festival
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