History of Basel - Culture

Culture

Basel has a thriving cultural life. (In 1997, it contended to become the "European Capital of Culture", though the honor went instead to Thessaloniki) Basel is the home of the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, founded in 1933, a worldwide centre for research on and performance of music from the Medieval through the Baroque eras. Theater Basel presents a busy schedule of plays in addition to being home to the city's opera and ballet companies. Basel is home to the largest orchestra in Switzerland, the Sinfonieorchester Basel. It is also the home of the Kammerorchester Basel, which is recording the complete symphonies of Ludwig van Beethoven for the Sony label led by its music director Giovanni Antonini. The baroque orchestras La Cetra and Capriccio Basel are also based in Basel. In May 2004, the fifth European Festival of Youth Choirs (Europäisches Jugendchorfestival, or EJCF) choir festival opened: this Basel tradition started in 1992. Host of this festival is the local Basel Boys Choir.

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Famous quotes containing the word culture:

    “Popular culture is seductive; high culture is imperious.”
    —Mason Cooley (b. 1927)

    “If you’re anxious for to shine in the high esthetic line as a man
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    You must get up all the germs of the transcendental terms, and plant
    them everywhere.
    You must lie upon the daisies and discourse in novel phrases of your
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    The meaning doesn’t matter if it’s only idle chatter of a
    transcendental kind.”
    —Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (1836–1911)