FSN was invited to Switzerland by Lucerne Festival Academy's Spotlight initiative, which featured alumni of the Academy leading original creative projects. With an interest in engaging the community outside of the famed Lucerne Concert Hall, the FSN team pitched the idea of the 'mobile street studio' -- simply bringing the basic elements of a recording studio into a public place to engage passersby in a continuous, collaborative music-making process. 

Our inaugural street studios took place in August 2011. Over the course of four days, we set up mobile studios in four public locations in town -- outside of the central train station, on a bridge facing the concert hall, in a park by the lake, and by a cafe -- recording and engaging with passersby for several hours at a time. These first street studios resulted in 12 original tracks co-created by over 100 passersby (including festival musicians), 4 short films by Temujin Doran, a beautiful collection of photos by Hannah Devereux, countless stories and shared musical moments, new friendships, and joyous chance encounters. After many summers spent playing in the Academy's orchestra, FSN's Elena Moon Park remarked that she learned more about the community and people of Lucerne in just those four days of street studios than she had in three summers of performing in its famed concert hall. 

In 2013, FSN returned to Lucerne Festival Academy to lead street studios for a second year, this time bringing along several musical collaborators, including Weronika Partyka (from Poland/Slovenia), Anton Maskeliade (from Russia), Vera Jonas (from Hungary) and Devin Greenwood (from the US). That summer FSN led four additional street studios in public spaces across Luzern, co-creating 11 original tracks with passersby and festival musicians, plus several videos and photos with Temujin Doran and Hannah Devereux, culminating in an interactive street studio "performance" in the Lucerne Concert Hall. Since this time, the FSN Street Studio methodology has been developed, enhanced and led by friends and collaborators across the world, each celebrating the unique and distinct sounds and energy of a particular public place in time.