A Kampus festival in Lucerne
On September 2, the music institutions located in the Südpol offered an insight into their fields of activity.
Three years late, the Kampus Südpol was finally officially inaugurated with a celebration in Lucerne-Kriens. No fewer than eight institutions were involved: Kulturhaus Südpol, Lucerne City Music School, Lucerne Theater, Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, Lucerne University of Music (HSLU), Musik Hug, the Haus der Instrumente and the Werft rehearsal house. What was supposed to be a festival turned out to be more of an "open day" on a campus that is still under construction.
As soon as you arrived, you could see that the campus has by no means grown organically. On one side is the "Südpol", the "oldest" building, an unspectacular structure that houses the Lucerne City Music School, the rehearsal rooms of the Lucerne Theater and two halls for alternative culture. In front of it, the orchestra house of the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, inaugurated in 2020, gleams in silver. Away from these two buildings stands the University of Music, which opened in 2020. So there is no well thought-out site concept.
A remarkable starting position ...
The institutions cover important stages of a musical career and can operate in a network at one location: from basic training to university and creative-professional practice. What sounds so fascinating in theory is a Herculean task in practice, as each segment functions differently and has different needs. September 2 was therefore chosen as the day of celebration, when the university and the LSO are still in summer mode and the rooms are not occupied for the day's work.
The selection of performances over seven hours was huge and ranged from intimate performances by individuals to rehearsals by wind orchestras or a workshop on "hands-on acting training". Rooms were used ranging from the rehearsal stage of the Lucerne Theater and the halls of the music school to those of the symphony orchestra and the university. Individual rehearsal rooms were also occupied. The range of venues available here is astonishing and inspiring.
However, the number of visitors was modest, and there was little sign of a festive atmosphere and hustle and bustle in the buildings. Was it due to a lack of interest or too little advertising? And orientation signs within and between the buildings were rudimentary, you had to work your way through somehow. Nevertheless, it's fair to say that those who didn't come missed a lot, as a tour of the site showed.
... for solo to tutti ...
Visitors were able to meet individual LSO musicians in the rehearsal rooms in the orchestra building. And in the rehearsal hall, over 80 young people from the Lucerne Youth Wind Orchestra, under the direction of their conductor Sandro Blank, presented a one-hour program that they will play at the Swiss Youth Music Festival in St. Gallen.
It was well worth listening to how the young musicians, sometimes as a whole formation, sometimes as soloists, illuminated the facets of brass music and how precisely the percussion instruments performed. Works by Teo Aparicio-Barberán and Amir Malookpour were played - unfortunately there was no program sheet. The acoustics of the hall, which offers optimal conditions for the LSO, were also astonishing.
The music school bakes smaller rolls. Its two halls are not acoustically ideal, but offer a variety of uses. Taster courses for "parent-child singing" were offered in the small hall at the festival, although these attracted little attention. The music school had a varied presence, for example with its band A-la-Ska, which consists of adult amateur musicians. In the small hall, Monica Faé-Leitl presented two recorder groups and demonstrated how she can get even less musical children involved.
The university's clarinet quartet played in the Salquin Hall of the university building, as did young people from the "Talent Promotion Music Canton of Lucerne". They presented their pieces under professional conditions with astonishing fearlessness. Here you could also admire the high-end "HörRaum", which is enriched with a huge vinyl collection and is actively used by students. However, it is a little-known fact that the "HörRaum", just like the library, is also open to non-students.
The Haus der Instrumente (Willisau Musical Instrument Collection until 2022) has just opened near the Kampus, which director Adrian Steger wants to establish as a place for "music and craftsmanship". A collaboration with Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts is already being considered, with a Master's student set to build experimental instruments in the house's studio.
... with regard to the audience
It is precisely this coexistence of young and old, professional and amateur, that makes this campus so special and has such potential. There is enough young talent in the concert business, but a thriving concert landscape also needs an audience that should be drawn to it. Concert halls such as the LSO's rehearsal room or the three halls of the University of Music offer the opportunity to listen to a concert without any threshold fear.
A total of around 700 events are currently held on the campus each year. Cooperation between the institutions has also contributed to this figure and is to be further expanded.
