For the first time the programming is entirely curated by LAC, following the integration of LuganoMusica's activities into the new Music sector which took place last September, and redefines the role of music within a multidisciplinary cultural centre, strengthening the dialogue with the Orchestra of Italian Switzerland (OSI), resident orchestra. The LAC is not just an auditorium for symphonic concerts: it is a cultural laboratory that brings music into dialogue with the performing arts, dance, and visual arts to broaden the spectrum of programming. The construction of the new season embraces the visions of the cultural center and the path it has undertaken for years, aimed at involving an increasingly wider audience, actively dialoguing with the territory, overcoming traditional canons and opening up to new formats and contaminations. Among the novelties of the season, the change in the start time of the concerts, which is brought forward to 20.00:XNUMX p.m.
The 2025/26 season stands out for its musical offerings that range from major symphonic concerts to recitals, from electronic experimentation to contemporary music. After its debut in Lugano from 15 to 21 September of the lyrical diptych The human voice by Francis Poulenc and Cavalleria rusticana by Pietro Mascagni, in the directorial reading of Emma Dante and in the musical interpretation of Maestro Francesco Cilluffo at the helm of the OSI, the opening of the season is expressed in a triple event: three concerts (17, 18, 19 October 2025) that arise from the encounter between jazz and symphonic music. The famous double bass player Avishai Cohen dialogues with the Göteborgs Symfoniker for a project that challenges the boundaries between improvisation and orchestral writing: a first concert entirely symphonic with Neeme Järvi conductor and Truls Mørk on cello, a second of symphonic jazz with Alexander Hansen conductor, the third of pure jazz with the Avishai Cohen trio.
Among the most anticipated symphonic events, the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Myung-Whun Chung, brings to the stage for its absolute debut, exclusively in Switzerland, the rhythmic power of The Rite of Spring Stravinsky, with solo violinist Maxim Vengerov performing the Tchaikovsky concerto (November 10, 2025); Sir András Schiff and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (November 23, 2025) offer an innovative reinterpretation of Haydn's symphonies. Also not to be missed is the concert by the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino with Zubin Mehta, for the first time in Lugano, on the podium for the famous Symphonies No. 39, 40 e 41 by Mozart (7 February 2026) and that of Philippe Herreweghe at the head of the Orchestre des Champs-Élysées and the Collegium Vocale Gent in a programme that combines the monumental Eroica from Beethoven to Requiem by Cherubini (March 19, 2026).
The programme also features artists of absolute importance such as Lisa Batiashvili, Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Gautier Capuçon in a refined chamber music recital with music by Rachmaninov, Debussy and Dvořák (30 October 2025). There is also great anticipation for the Verbier Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Gábor Takács-Nagy, which with cellist Steven Isserlis is engaged in a programme dedicated to Beethoven, Haydn and Ernest Bloch (1 December 2025).
The season also features the Swiss Orchestra (7 May 2026), the resident orchestra of the Andermatt Concert Hall, with Lena-Lisa Wüstendörfer conducting and pianist Olga Scheps, in a programme that brings together Beethoven and Dupuy.
The Balagan recital with Noa Wildschut on violin, Pablo Barragán on clarinet and Amadeus Wiesensee on piano (April 12, 2026) is a journey through the eclectic richness of twentieth-century and contemporary chamber music, a mix of popular influences, explorations of timbre and refined instrumental writing. Pianist Nathalia Milstein (April 26, 2026) performs music by Haydn, Beethoven, Liszt and Prokofiev.
LuganoMusica Ensemble, a historic group born within the LAC that brings together the best musicians in the area, returns with a program dedicated to Saint-Saëns, Berwald, Poulenc and Rota (2 November 2025). Don’t miss the recital of the young piano virtuoso Hayato Sumino “Cateen” (14 December 2025), famous for his ability to blend the classical piano tradition with a modern and engaging musical language.
Antonio Ballista and Bruno Canino explore the music of Ravel, Fauré, Debussy and Stravinsky in four hands (11 January 2026). Kurtag 100 (February 19, 2026), a concert dedicated to the centenary of György Kurtág, presents a fascinating program with transcriptions from Bach, pieces by Bartók and compositions by Kurtág himself performed by Dénes Várjon and Izabella Simon on piano.
On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of I Barocchisti and the 90th anniversary of the RSI Choir, the two ensembles directed by the Lugano maestro Diego Fasolis bring one of Joseph Haydn's masterpieces to the LAC stage: the oratorio The creation of the world, in the Italian version edited by Giuseppe Carpani (21 February 2026).
The residency continues Overcoming Suisse (March 15, 2026), a project dedicated to inclusive music education for young people; the orchestra, conducted by Carlo Taffuri, offers a special performance that celebrates the power of music as a tool for growth and community.
At Christmas, we gather under the Hall tree for A Christmas Carol – Christmas Concert at the LAC, the last appointment in a series of twenty Christmas concerts in the churches of Lugano (20 December 2025).
If the overcoming of traditional musical genres is one of the leitmotifs of the season, the mix of different sound worlds is expressed with the singer Ledisi and the Metropole Orkest (17 January 2026) in the homage to Nina Simone, whose songs are dressed in new orchestral arrangements, and with the Manchester Collective (6 June 2026), which mixes folk, jazz and contemporary music.
This season, jazz invades the spaces of classical music thanks to the collaboration with Jazz in Bess: the concerts of Oded Tzur Quartet (23 October 2025) and Arcanum (27 November 2025) will take place in Besso, the Tord Gustavssen Trio (25 February 2026) and the Éténèsh Wassié Trio (22 March) will perform in Sala Teatro and Sala 1 respectively.
The human voice, in its timeless expressive capacity, is at the centre of many of the season's events. The concert What does man live on? with Costanza Alegiani and Peppe Servillo celebrates the anti-theatrical nature and irony of the songs of Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht (1 April 2026). The Camerata Bern, directed by Maria Włoszczowska (29 April 2026), with its musical exploration between Hildegard von Bingen and Benjamin Britten, creates a sound bridge between medieval singing and orchestral modernity. Again, a voice pushes us to cross borders and it is that of the famous singer Mariza (1 February 2026) who has been able to give new life to the Portuguese tradition of fado, bringing it to the international stage.
The concert FS: on the road features Paolo Fresu and Giovanni Sollima (9 May 2026), two artists capable of exploring the timbric potential of the trumpet and cello, in a dialogue that spans centuries of music and sound experimentation.
The project Rodari Connection (February 13, 2026) – Valentina Fin voice, electronics, sax and Effe Effe (Federica Furlani) viola, electronics – combines narration and experimentation for a new sound experience inspired by Gianni Rodari's famous Tales on the Telephone, reinterpreted through digital sounds and images. The vision of Psycho (1960) by Alfred Hitchcock is accompanied by live music (December 10 and 11, 2025): the OSI, directed by Anthony Gabriele, brings music and cinema into dialogue. In the same week, the duo Gebrüder Teichmann (December 11, 2025) provides the soundtrack to the silent film Symphony of a Big City (1927) with a live electronic performance in collaboration with Oggimusica
The project for hikers (20 and 21 May 2026), in artistic residence at LAC, goes beyond the boundaries between concert, theatre and visual installation: an immersive experience that dissolves the limits between stage and audience and invites the audience to be an active part.
An unmissable appointment remains Early Night Modern: the popular festival, which maintains its collaboration with Oggimusica, is ten years old. There are eight events scheduled, from October to April.
Back to the EAR review, a project by Spazio21 of the Conservatorio della Svizzera italiana in co-production with the LAC, which for its tenth anniversary introduces a “listening guide” to the six concerts dedicated to acousmatic music, which will be held in Teatrostudio between January and May.
