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After more than 20 years as artistic director of the Lucerne Festival, Michael Haefliger is no longer renewing his contract. He will retire at the end of 2025 and the search for his successor has already begun.
Michael Haefliger has been in charge of the Lucerne Festival since 1999. The 61-year-old has now decided not to extend his contract, which runs until the end of 2025. According to a statement from the festival, the decision was not easy for him.
When he leaves, Haefliger will have headed the festival for 26 years. “It’s been a very long time that I’ve had the privilege, honor and joy of developing and designing this unique festival,” says the director. Now the time has come to place “this jewel” in new hands.
International standards in Lucerne
The Board of Trustees set up a search committee to find a successor to Michael Haefliger. The Board of Trustees plans to decide and provide information on the successor by the fourth quarter of 2023.
It is now important to find a new manager who will approach the matter with new ideas and new drive.
Markus Hongler, President of the Lucerne Festival Board of Trustees says: “We will be able to benefit from Haefliger’s extraordinary skills for another three years, as he has just launched three new festival projects.” These are the Lucerne Festival Forward for contemporary music, a spring festival with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra and the Piano Festival curated by Igor Levit.
According to Hongler, Haefliger set new international standards during his time at the Lucerne Festival and gave the event worldwide recognition. Every year, the artistic director has put together a diverse festival program of the highest quality with the best international orchestras and soloists.
Michael Haefliger says to SRF about his successor: “It is now important to find a new management that approaches the matter with new ideas and new vigour.” You want to do it even better every year, but at some point there will be an end, “I think that’s right and important”.
He created something unique worldwide
Markus Hongler is convinced: “No other international festival promotes contemporary music to the same extent as the Lucerne Festival and experiments so boldly with new concert formats and innovative approaches in order to reach new target groups.”
In addition, Michael Haeflinger has built up a sponsorship network and created a solid financial basis with the expansion of the Lucerne Festival Friends. The high profitability of over 90 percent is unrivaled at a festival in this category. According to Hongler, the aim now is to maintain and further develop the high level in artistic and economic terms for the future.
Classic music in Lucerne for over 80 years
The classical music festival in Lucerne began as early as 1938 in Richard Wagner’s former home in Lucerne. From 1943 it functioned under the name “International Music Festival Lucerne”, since 2000 as the Lucerne Festival.
Legend:
Passing the baton: At the age of 36, Michael Haefliger (right) was introduced as the successor to Matthias Bamert as artistic director of what was then the Lucerne International Music Festival.
KEYSTONE/GEORG ANDERHUB
Michael Haefliger, born in Berlin in 1961 as the son of tenor Ernst Haefliger, studied violin and was one of the founders of the Young Artists in Concert Festival in Davos in 1986. In 1999 he took over the directorship in Lucerne from his predecessor Matthias Bamert.
Haefliger’s milestones included founding the Lucerne Festival Orchestra in 2003 (with Claudio Abbado), launching the Academy in 2004 (with Pierre Boulez) and hiring Riccardo Chailly as chief conductor in 2016.