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Luxembourg's Ministry of Culture has announced that the jury selected David Laborier as the composer of the musical work created for the National Day celebration, the Grand Duke’s birthday.
The Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra will perform this festive work for symphony orchestra at the Luxembourg National Day opening ceremony on 23 June 2024.
Twelve composers responded to the call for applications launched by the Ministry of State and the Ministry of Culture in December 2023. This commission was worth €8,500 excluding VAT.
The jury selected the composition of guitarist, composer and arranger David Laborier. He studied jazz guitar at the Conservatoire de la Ville de Luxembourg, at the Berklee College of Music and the Royal Conservatory in The Hague; he is currently a jazz music teacher at the Conservatoire de la Ville de Luxembourg. As a composer and conductor, David Laborier has released five albums on the Waltzing-Parke Records label. His album Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Band won first prize in the jazz category of the 2010 International Songwriting Competition (ISC). He is also the author of a three-part jazz theory method called Cogs and Wheels, the first two volumes of which were published in 2021.
During his career, David Laborier has performed, composed and arranged music for the Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra and the National Jazz Orchestra, with a wide variety of internationally renowned artists. He is also a long-time member of trumpeter Gast Waltzing's group Largo and is the lead guitarist in Angélique Kidjo's symphony concerts. Three of his orchestral arrangements also appeared on the album Sings by Angélique Kidjo, released in 2015 and awarded a Grammy Award.
The jury was composed of Marc Meyers, Director of the Conservatoire de la Ville de Luxembourg, Matthew Studdert-Kennedy, Head of the division of artistic planning at the Philharmonie and Georges Sadeler, composer and winner of the 2023 call for compositions.
