Orchestra della Svizzera italiana

The orchestra plays a leading role in three main concert series in Lugano: the first, ‘OSI al LAC’, runs from autumn to spring in the Sala Teatro at the LAC; the second, ‘OSI in Auditorio’, takes place in the orchestra’s historic home, the Auditorio Stelio Molo RSI in Lugano Besso; while the third, ‘OSI a Pentecoste’, is to be launched in June 2025 on the back of the Presenza festival (2022–24) with the aim of establishing a regular OSI event in the shape of a particularly interesting weekend, with international audiences envisaged.

All these initiatives are augmented by the innovative ‘be connected’ series offering events and special concerts across Italian Switzerland designed to arouse the interest of new audiences and to promote the identity of the OSI in places where certain barriers and prejudices with regard to classical music still appear to exist.

Its rich concert programming has seen the orchestra collaborate not only with Poschner and Urbański, but with a wide range of other conductors and soloists of international repute, both in Italian Switzerland and outside the region: among the most popular of these are the pianist Martha Argerich, with whom the OSI has enjoyed a special relationship for more than twenty years, and the cellist Sol Gabetta, with whom the orchestra has developed a steady partnership, culminating in the launch of the Presenza festival at the LAC, which will return to Lugano in 2027 (taking place every three years).

Also under continuous development are concert activities in Bellinzona as well as in the rest of Italian Switzerland, where the orchestra appears regularly for a variety of events each year, and particularly in the sphere of cultural mediation.

The orchestra is equally active in the field of recording, in collaboration with Radiotelevisione svizzera di lingua italiana (RSI); having been bestowed with the prestigious international ICMA award for the first time in 2018 for their recording of Brahms’s complete symphonies on DVD (SONY Classical), the OSI and Poschner won their second ICMA in January 2025 for their CD of works by Paul Hindemith and Alfred Schnittke (on the ECM New Series label). The OSI’s discography of original and intriguing repertoire also includes a series of CDs dedicated to previously unrecorded works by Rossini; these were augmented, in 2023, by Symphonies nos 5 and 6 by Tchaikovsky.

Also notable are the orchestra’s opera and ballet co-productions with the LAC as well as with a range of international partners. Last but not least are the OSI’s amazing outreach activities for the young: every year, in May, some 10,000 children attend the concert events specially devised for them. The OSI contributes to youth music education through a close relationship at various levels with the Scuola universitaria di Musica of the Conservatorio della Svizzera italiana.

Open-air concerts, cine-concerts and summer festivals – including the Locarno Film Festival – complete the OSI’s yearly programme, attracting ever larger audiences.

Principals Conductors

• Markus Poschner, from settembre 2015 Principal Conductor

• Krzysztof Urbański, from novembre 2022 Principal Guest Conductor

• Vladimir Ashkenazy, from settembre 2013 to 2020 was Principal Guest Conductor

• Alain Lombard, 1999 - 2005 Principal Conductor, from 2005 Honorary Conductor

• Mikhail Pletnev, 2008 - 2010 Principal Guest Conductor

• Serge Baudo, 1997 - 2000 First Guest Conductor

• Nicholas Carthy, 1993 - 1996 Permanent Conductor

• Marc Andreae, 1969 - 1991 Permanent Conductor

• Otmar Nussio, 1938 - 1968 Permanent Conductor

• Leopoldo Casella, 1935 - 1938 Permanent Conductor