Paul Sacher

Paul Sacher (28 April 1906 – 26 May 1999) was a Swiss conductor, patron and impresario. He founded and conducted the Basler Kammerorchester (1926-1987). He commissioned notable works of composers of the 20th century and premiered them with the chamber orchestra.

Sacher studied under Felix Weingartner, among others. In 1926 he founded the chamber orchestra Basler Kammerorchester, which specialized in both modern (twentieth-century) and pre-classical (mid-eighteenth-century) repertory. In 1928 he founded the Basel Chamber Choir. Both the orchestra and choir gave their last performance in 1987. In 1984 the Serenata Basel was formed, with no direct connection to Sacher; they later adopted the name Kammerorchester Basel.

Immensely wealthy, Sacher commissioned works from many well-known composers, including:

Pierre Boulez wrote his Grawemeyer Award-winning work Sur Incises for Sacher's 90th birthday. Boulez bequeathed his entire catalogue (including drafts) to the Paul Sacher Foundation. Henze dedicated his Tenth Symphony to Sacher's memory, who had commissioned it but died before its completion.

In 1983, Sacher acquired the Stravinsky estate. The Paul Sacher Stiftung (Foundation) is located in the center of Basel (in Münsterplatz) and houses one of the world's most important musical-manuscript collections. Sacher bought most of these manuscripts himself, and they include complete collections by several important twentieth-century composers (including Lutosławski, Ligeti and Boulez). In 1997, he received an honorary doctorate from the Academy of Music in Kraków.

He was considered the world's third-richest man of the 1990s after marrying the heiress of the pharmaceutical company Hoffmann-La Roche. At the time of his death, he was reputed in various publications to be the richest man in Europe. He died in 1999, aged 93.

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