Cycling onto the concert stage

Regulars, especially subscribers of the Basel Sinfonietta, know it: the orchestra has been breaking with classical music and concert conventions for quite some time now. Founded in 1980, "the Sinfonietta" is and remains driven by the ambition to create music that is truly contemporary. Since 2025, it has been doing so under the presidency of Fran Lorkovic. Principal Conductor Titus Engel is in his fourth season. Fiona Stevens has been the new managing director since summer 2025. Time for a look back. 

The Basel Sinfonietta enjoys an excellent reputation as a pioneering symphonic orchestra for contemporary music. Its 50th anniversary is still a few years away. Time to relax, wouldn't you say? 

Fran Lorkovic (FL): Sure! Enough is enough! 46 years of discomfort is enough! But seriously: Comfort is nice, but everything in its own time. You can't just change the music world a little bit by being comfortable. Should the

If one or two people still feel comfortable at one of our concerts, they can be forgiven.

Titus Engel (TE): Agreed. Only those who are open to new things can stay ahead of the curve. That's precisely what I appreciate so much about our orchestra: In every rehearsal and every concert, the musicians are ready to embrace new challenges and push themselves to their limits with great personal commitment. That's unique.

Fiona Stevens (FS): Apart from that, the planning for our anniversary seasons from 2029 to 2031 is preventing things from getting too comfortable. Preparations are in full swing; we're planning a publication, just like for our 40th anniversary, and there are major collaborations in the works, including exciting events in Basel. Of course, we're keeping quiet about that for now (laughs).

So let's take a closer look at the current season. What can the audience expect? 

TE: We begin with the brilliant soloist Vivi Vassileva performing Tan Dun's unfortunately very topical piece, "The Tears of Nature." Then a dream of mine comes true: the performance of "Éclairs sur l'au-delà…" by Olivier Messiaen, one of my favorite composers. It's a hugely orchestrated, very spiritual work. I'm also particularly looking forward to the special program at the Pantheon; it deals with the car and other means of transportation. The audience is encouraged to come by bicycle, because as the opening piece, I'll be performing "Eine Brise" by Maurizio Kagel with them.

FS: I'm also incredibly excited about collaborating with Vivi Vassileva. She's one of the most exciting and exceptionally talented drummers around, and she's not afraid to make music on old plastic bottles. I'm expecting an electrifying performance.

FL: Good point, expectations. We know our audience would be disappointed if we didn't offer listening experiences that go beyond the category of "tested and deemed usable works to be preserved and cultivated in the canon." This season, too, we will discuss the question of success or failure together with our audience and, ideally, find an answer. Without a doubt, we strive to favor success in our selection of works, but the risk of failure is inherent in trying something new and, we believe, is part of what interests and appeals to our audience about our concept.

Aside from this stance: Where do you experiment? Where do you take risks?

TE: We experiment primarily with world premieres. I'm especially excited

I'm looking forward to the new pieces by Ezko Kikoutchi, Jannik Giger, Gemma Ragués Pujol, and Thomas Nidecker, all composers I greatly admire. What exactly they're writing, however, remains as much a mystery to me as it is to the audience at this point in the editorial process. Messiaen and Berg are composers I consider important for further refining the orchestral sound, and our concert program for video and [unclear] is something very special

Orchestra, including a video by Bill Viola.

FS: Gemma Ragués Pujol's commissioned work is an experiment I'm also particularly looking forward to. Gemma is intensively exploring the sonic possibilities within the museum, and I'm curious to see what role the cars on display there will play. I find it very amusing that the concert's opening is to be designed by our audience themselves—with Kagel's piece for 111 bicycles—and I hope many of them will participate.

Five thematic threads run like a common thread through the program. But the Sinfonietta's commitment doesn't end at the edge of the stage?

FS: Absolutely not. We've just launched a collaboration with the Zagreb Music Biennale, which focuses not only on music but also on knowledge transfer. With our concert series "The Sound Foxes," designed for children up to three years old, we're currently working on expanding the format to appeal to children and adults across generations. Beyond music, we're also active in cultural policy, taking positions on current issues affecting Basel and Switzerland, for example, through the Cultural Policy Network, where I've been co-president since January 2026.

FL: Our grassroots democratic organizational structure also sends a signal beyond the music itself. The challenges facing democracies are currently omnipresent and widely discussed. For us, democracy is beyond question; it's part of our identity and makes internal participation, as well as—we hope—external perception, unique. 

TE: Also new is our partnership with the Ukrainian Institute, within which we will, for example, premiere works by political prisoners from the Soviet Union, combined with contemporary works from Ukraine. I think it's very important that music doesn't just focus on art for art's sake, but also addresses social and current issues.