A house for the orchestra, a home for music

Information

A place of work and activity for musicians and music enthusiasts.

In addition to Luzerner Sinfonieorchester rehearsals, chamber music concerts and music outreach events also take place in the Orchesterhaus.

Thanks to its status as the KKL Luzern’s resident orchestra, the Luzerner Sinfonieorchester plays in one of the world’s best concert halls. However, neither the KKL Luzern nor the Lucerne Theatre has a rehearsal room that is suitable in terms of space and quality. In the Orchesterhaus, the Luzerner Sinfonieorchester now has a professional space for symphonic rehearsals.

Yet the Orchesterhaus has become far more than originally envisaged. Besides rehearsals – some of which are open to the public – chamber music matinee concerts and numerous music outreach events also take place in the Orchesterhaus, for example the new fortnightly Drum Circle.

A creative centre for Lucerne

Where music falls on fertile ground

The Orchesterhaus is part of the Südpol campus and a meeting place for music enthusiasts across all generations.

The Orchesterhaus is located on the road joining Lucerne and Kriens, in the immediate vicinity of the newly built Lucerne School of Music, Südpol Lucerne, the Lucerne Theatre and the music school. On the Südpol site, a music campus has come into being that offers fascinating synergies and collaborations. Children can meet teenagers, students can meet professional musicians. This is a unique situation in Lucerne and an unprecedented opportunity for the institutions located on the Südpol campus.

Space for new set-ups

In the field of music education, a number of activities are already envisaged which should make for exciting musical encounters:

  • Luzerner Sinfonieorchester audience members who play an instrument themselves can become familiar with the Orchestra House and sit side by side with the professionals during rehearsals in the Audience Orchestra.
  • An Instrument Café provides opportunities for personal meetings and conversation with musicians.
  • Parents and their children will find spaces in the Orchestra House where they can experience music in a setting that is entirely geared to the interests and needs of children.
  • Pupils with and without disabilities can create concerts themselves, rehearse and invite others.
  • People united by a desire to make music meet every two weeks in the Drum Circle, with or without previous experience, young or old.
  • In a cooperation between the Lucerne School of Music and the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, a new further education programme «CAS Music education» has been developed, and  exemplifies the synergies between practice and teaching.

A piece of Lucerne's musical history

The origins of the Orchesterhaus

The Orchestra House has given the Luzerner Sinfonieorchester an independent face to the outside world for the first time.

The construction of its own rehearsal venue has been a longstanding wish of the Luzerner Sinfonieorchester, both from an artistic and a spatial point of view. But all visions need time and fertile soil to grow. When the “Luzerner Sinfonieorchester Trust” decided to take over the initiative for construction and sponsorship in 2016, the vision started to become reality.

An architecture competition was held in December 2016. A jury consisting of accredited experts, representatives of the developers, and the municipality of Kriens unanimously chose “Enzmann Fischer & Büro Konstrukt AG” as the winner of the competition. The ground-breaking ceremony took place in summer 2018, and around sixty companies, mostly from the Lucerne region, implemented the architects’ plans. Having moved in during the summer of 2020, the Luzerner Sinfonieorchester will now be able to play in the house for the first time in the 2020/21 season.

Directions

The Orchesterhaus is located on the road joining Lucerne and Kriens, in the immediate vicinity of the newly built Lucerne School of Music, Südpol Lucerne, the Lucerne Theatre and the music school.

By public transport: From Lucerne railway station: VBL bus no. 14 (direction Horw Zentrum) to Südpol bus stop. The bus stop is directly in front of the building. The no.14 runs every 15 minutes all day (Mon-Sat) and twice an hour on Sunday.

By car: Please be advised that there are very few visitor parking spaces at Südpol. We recommend you travel by bicycle or public transport.

By bike: Südpol can be reached from the city centre by bike in 7-10 minutes. Around 200 bicycle parking spaces are provided to the front and rear of the building.

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