The Basel Com­pos­i­tion Com­pet­i­tion (BCC) is an inter­na­tion­al com­pos­i­tion com­pet­i­tion that takes place every two years in col­lab­or­a­tion with the Paul Sach­er Found­a­tion in Basel, award­ing works for cham­ber and sym­phony orches­tras. The fifth edi­tion took place from 30 Janu­ary to 2 Feb­ru­ary 2025, under the dir­ec­tion of jury pres­id­ent Michael Jar­rell, as in pre­vi­ous years.

Hardly any musi­cian shaped Basel’s music­al life as strongly as Paul Sach­er (1906–1999). As a con­duct­or, com­mis­sion­er of new com­pos­i­tions, and pat­ron and mem­ber of numer­ous com­mit­tees and insti­tu­tions, he ded­ic­ated him­self diversely to the con­tem­por­ary music of his cen­tury. In 1973, he foun­ded the Paul Sach­er Found­a­tion and later estab­lished it, with the estate of Igor Strav­in­sky and the col­lec­tions of Ant­on Webern and Bruno Maderna, as a research insti­tu­tion of inter­na­tion­al stand­ing. In the spir­it of the Basel con­duct­or who died in 1999, the most excit­ing com­posers of the 21^st cen­tury are to be brought to Basel as part of the BCC.

In a selec­tion pro­cess, ten to twelve new com­pos­i­tions that have not yet been per­formed (not even in excerpts) and have not yet received any prizes will be nom­in­ated, and will be per­formed by the Basel Cham­ber Orches­tra, the Basel Sym­phony Orches­tra and the Basel Sin­foni­etta as part of a pub­lic com­pet­i­tion. The three best com­pos­i­tions will be awar­ded prize money totalling CHF 100,000.
Opheli­as Cul­ture PR under­takes com­pre­hens­ive inter­na­tion­al press work for the BCC, bring­ing the com­pet­i­tion into the glob­al spot­light. We secure inter­views with those respons­ible and organ­ise exclus­ive press invit­a­tions, ensur­ing high-qual­ity cov­er­age. Fur­ther­more, we provide tar­geted mar­ket­ing con­sultancy to sus­tain­ably strengthen the brand and the competition’s vis­ib­il­ity.