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

Few musi­cians have shaped Basel’s music scene as pro­foundly as Paul Sach­er (1906–1999). As a con­duct­or, pat­ron of new com­pos­i­tions, and sup­port­er and mem­ber of numer­ous com­mit­tees and insti­tu­tions, he was deeply com­mit­ted to the con­tem­por­ary music of his time. In 1973, he foun­ded Paul Sach­er Found­a­tion and later estab­lished it as a research insti­tu­tion of inter­na­tion­al renown with the leg­acy of Igor Strav­in­sky, as well as col­lec­tions from Ant­on Webern and Bruno Maderna. In the spir­it of Basel con­duct­or who passed away in 1999, BCC aims to bring the most excit­ing com­posers of the 21^st cen­tury to Basel.

In a selec­tion pro­cess, ten to twelve new, unpub­lished com­pos­i­tions (also not in excerpts) that have not yet received an award will be nom­in­ated. These works will be per­formed in a pub­lic com­pet­i­tion by Kam­mer­orchester Basel, Sin­fonieorchester Basel, and Basel Sin­foni­etta. The three best com­pos­i­tions will be awar­ded prizes, with a total prize fund of CHF 100,000.

For BCC, Opheli­a’s Cul­ture PR man­ages extens­ive inter­na­tion­al press work to bring the com­pet­i­tion into the glob­al spot­light. We secure inter­views with key fig­ures and organ­ize exclus­ive press invit­a­tions to ensure qual­i­fied media cov­er­age. Addi­tion­ally, we advise the cli­ent in mar­ket­ing to strengthen the competition’s brand and vis­ib­il­ity in the long term.