Tuns Contemporans

Orchestre Musique des Lumières

Driven by a rather transversal approach to the repertoire, Musique des Lumières and Agudin devote thouroughly to the enhancement of contemporary music’s transmission. In 2011, they were invited by Fondazione Cini (Venice) to inagurate the garden Maze created by Randoll Coates in honour of Jorge Luis Borges. In 2015 the orchestra launched its Dürrenmatt Anniversary Project with the world premiere of the opera Romulus der Grosse by Andreas Pflüger. As part of this project and with the kind support of Pro Helvetia, the Charlotte Kerr Dürrenmatt Stiftung and Centre Dürrenmatt Neuchâtel, Musique des Lumières (MdL) and Facundo have commissioned and premiered works by David Sontòn Caflisch, Andreas Pflüger, Marco Pérez Ramirez, Dominique Gesseney. Upcoming commissions include composers such as Katharina Rosenberger (UC San Diego), Chaya Czernowin (Harvard), Laurie San Martin and Pablo Ortiz (UC Davis). In 2019 and 2020, the Dürrenmatt Project will be hosted at the opening of Biennale Neue Musik Chur.MdL and Agudin have recorded for NEOS Music, Oehms Classics and Doron Music in coproduction with SRF 2 Kultur. Since 2017, Agudin and MdL are Artists of Spanish label IBS Classical, under worldwide distribution by Naxos of America. The Bach Mirror album (2017) received great acclaim of public and press, with 133’500 downloads in January 2018 (Naxos of America). Last release is a newly revised version of Viktor Ullmann’s Der Kaiser von Atlantis, realized in collaboration with the Sacher Foundation. International reviews have referred this recording: « The extraordinary opera by Ullmann in a luxurious edition » ; « New Kaiser recording, impeccably conducted by Agudin. Musique des Lumières and the soloists : a thrilling experience.»

Upcoming releases at IBS Classical include Nuevo Tango Nuevo – The Cortazar Project (world premières by Pablo Ortiz, Marcelo Nisinman, Julio Viera), Mozart & Dürrenmatt (world premières by Marco Pérez and Dominique Gesseney) and Bach and Dürrenmatt, featuring star-contralto Sara Mingardo (including world premières by Andreas Pflüger and David Sontòn Caflisch).

Orchestre Musique des Lumières and Agudin regularly conducts coproductions with TOBS Theater Orchester Biel Solothurn, with Théâtre du Passage Neuchâtel and with a number of partners. The orchestra is supported since 2001 by the Office de la Culture du Canton du Jura and the Loterie Romande. Its projects have been granted the support of Pro Helvetia Kulturstiftung, Fondation Anne et Robert Bloch, Sophie und Karl Binding Stiftung, Göhner Stiftung, Fondation Nestlé pour l’Art, Fondation Dénéréaz, SRKS Stiftung, Charlotte Kerr Dürrenmatt Stiftung among a prestigious group of public and private donors. In 2019, MdL and Agudin are invited to participate at the inaugural edition of the Biennale Neue Musik Chur.