Roche encourages the next generation of composers
Kirsten Milenko and Alex Vaughan, two young composers from Australia, have been commissioned by the Roche Young Commissions for 2021. They were selected by Wolfgang Rihm, Artistic Director of the Lucerne Festival Academy.
Born in Australia in 1992, Kirsten Milenko lives and composes in Copenhagen and studies at the Royal Danish Academy of Music with Niels Rosing-Schow and Simon Løffler. She previously studied with Liza Lim, Rosalind Page, Natasha Anderson and Ursula Caporali at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. She is signed to Australian label Muisti-Records and her debut album Caeli was released in June 2019.
Alex Vaughan, born in Sidney in 1987, began trombone lessons at the age of eight, followed by several years of training in jazz and music theory at the Music Life-School of Performing Arts under the direction of Rory Thomas in Sidney. He studied composition and jazz trombone at the University of New South Wales and then moved to Weimar to continue his studies in Germany. His teachers include Reinhard Wolschina, Jörn Arnecke and Hansjörg Fink.
The Roche Young Commissions were first launched in 2013 as a unique collaboration between Roche, Lucerne Festival and the Lucerne Festival Academy. Since 2003, works have been commissioned from world-renowned composers as part of the Roche Commissions, and the partnership has been expanded with the Roche Young Commissions. The works of the Roche Commissions and the Roche Young Commissions are premiered alternately every two years.
