Roche and Lucerne Festival extend partnership

Roche has announced that it has extended its long-running partnership with the Lucerne Festival, a prestigious annual music event in Switzerland.

The pharmaceutical company's cultural programme Roche Commissions is to become the exclusive partner of the festival, sponsoring the summer event and becoming resident partner of the Lucerne Festival Academy from 2013.

As before, the company's alliance with the festival involves the commissioning of an orchestral work from a renowned composer, with the sixth of these pieces to debut in Lucerne this month.

Roche will also be launching an accompanying scheme called Roche Young Commissions, which will see talented young composers producing their own pieces every two years from 2015.

Franz Humer, chairman of Roche, said: "We look back on many years of fruitful cooperation with the Lucerne Festival and are very pleased to have renewed this partnership for Roche Commissions and that we can continue developing it."

This comes after the firm helped to organise a study workshop, focusing on the role of innovation in arts and science, at the Salzburg Festival.