Roche Continents

In 2003 Roche, the Lucerne Festival, the Cleveland Orchestra and Carnegie Hall entered into a pioneering international partnership for the advancement of the arts. Under the terms of the partnership, Roche regularly commissions a new work from an outstanding contemporary composer. Each work is premiered at the Lucerne Festival, Summer followed by a US premiere at Carnegie Hall New York City.

We launched Roche Commissions to offer artists in contemporary music the challenge and opportunity to forge new frontiers in their special field, just as we encourage our scientists to pursue unconventional solutions in healthcare. With Roche Commissions we are linking innovation in the arts and innovation in medicine.

Roche Commissions embodies the key features of Roche’s long-standing involvement in cultural activities:

• By working together, the programme’s partners each contribute to creating something new and innovative which none of them would have been able to create alone.
•  An innovative process is facilitated that not only benefits music lovers but also allows a wide group of Roche scientists and their scientific peers to participate.
•  Works of enduring value are created which venture beyond the mainstream and provide a source of intellectual stimulation and challenge — very much in the spirit of Pierre Boulez’s exhortation to initial Roche’s guests to keep their minds open to new things “because a life without curiosity is boring”: 

Roche Commissions is a seamless continuation of Roche's traditional commitment to culture. This commitment sets itself apart from conventional sponsorship firstly by virtue of the combination of innovation and inspiration that has developed over the years, and secondly because the company plays an active role in the process.

At its inception, Roche’s Chairman Franz B. Humer chose to express the Roche Commissions concept in the following words: “Our heritage of inspiration and innovation in science and the arts is an opportunity for us. It is one of the hallmarks that truly set Roche apart from other companies, and it’s something solid we can build on. While other companies spend millions to develop and project a particular cultural identity, we already have a solid foundation in place. Ultimately, a company’s culture is one of the key factors for its success. We are able to attract top-flight people not only because of the compensation packages we offer, but also because of Roche’s distinctive culture. We need to keep our pioneering spirit alive in every area of our business and in our commitment to the arts”.

Roche Commissions is designed to highlight our commitment to innovation. This important initiative enables Roche people and other guests to enjoy world-class cultural events coupled with stimulating discourse. For those who know Roche only as an innovative healthcare company, the Roche Commissions events and premiere concerts reveal the company and its distinctive corporate culture in a new light. In particular, they offer the opportunity to see Roche values and commitment to good corporate citizenship in action.