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Current Interview

Lukas Sternath

Lukas Sternath in a recent interview.

About the interview

Sun, September 13th, 2026
Summer Festival: Trance

Concert title
Summer Festival: Trance
Date
Sun 13.09.2026
Start of the concert
11:00

Contributors

Name of the ensemble
Ensemble Helix/Studio for Contemporary Music of the Lucerne School of Music
Line
Gregory Charette, conductor

program

Ecstasy through repetition: that's the recipe of minimal music. It repeats simple melodic patterns again and again, varying them only slightly – and has become one of the most important American contributions to 20th-century music history. Michael Gordon, one of the co-founders of the legendary New York collective Bang on a Can along with Julia Wolfe and David Lang, draws on minimal pioneers like Steve Reich and Philip Glass. His music is also unmistakably inspired by rock. For example, "Trance" begins with a striking electric bass riff. Saxophones, synthesizers, and electric guitar create a raw, incredibly powerful ensemble sound. In this piece, composed in 1995, Gordon lets short motifs collide and develops a fiercely pulsating 50-minute frenzy from complex, constantly shifting rhythms: edgy, groovy music that builds towards an ecstatic climax and is augmented by samples of Buddhist and Gregorian chants.

Program:
Michael Gordon (*1956)
Trance

This concert has no intermission

Ticket outlets for concert tickets

Tickets available from March 24, 2026 | 10:00 AM (CET)

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