With the 2026 edition, the Music Weeks in Ascona enter a new phase in their history and change their identity: the festival, founded in 1946 and now at the 81st edition under the aegis of the Ascona Music Weeks Foundation, it takes the name of classic Ascona, marking a transition that is not limited to a rebranding, but reflects a broader transformation of the cultural project.
The new name accompanies a rethinking of the festival's format, organizational structure, and positioning, which aims to strengthen its presence on the national and international music scene while maintaining its ties to the Ticino region and its decades-long tradition.
Historical continuity and organizational renewal
The decision to present itself as classicAscona is described by the organizers as a coherent evolution of a process begun after World War II. Over eighty years of activity, the festival has undergone changes in venues, artistic directors, and institutional structures, building a reputation based on interpretive quality and a direct relationship between artists, audiences, and venues.
Since 2026, this legacy has been accompanied by a progressive professionalization of the organization, particularly in the areas of communication, marketing, and fundraising. The overall budget announced for classicAscona 2026 is 1,7 million francs, supported by a mix of public resources, foundations, patrons, and private sponsors. The stated goal is to ensure economic sustainability and competitiveness in an increasingly competitive cultural landscape.
Christoph Müller and the new artistic direction
The artistic direction of the new phase is entrusted to Christoph Müller, a long-time cultural manager, who directed the Gstaad Menuhin Festival & Academy from 2002 to 2025. His background combines musical training—as a cellist—with a management career that has seen him develop internationally recognized festivals, academies, orchestras, and interdisciplinary projects.
With his arrival in Ascona, Müller takes on the task of redesigning the festival, maintaining its historic prestige and broadening its horizons. The new direction introduces a shorter, more easily recognizable name in multiple languages, new dates, and a structure that transforms the event into a compact festival, concentrated in three weeks and four weekends, from September 18 to October 10, 2026.
A concentrated festival, spread across the territory
classicAscona 2026 will offer approximately fifty events distributed across twenty locations in the Locarno area. Alongside the historic churches of the Collegio Papio in Ascona and San Francesco in Locarno, the program will involve iconic locations such as the Brissago Islands, Monte Verità, the church of Mogno designed by Mario Botta, and unconventional outdoor spaces.
The heart of the programming remains constituted by the Concerts of excellence, which ensure continuity with the past. The program features leading orchestras and ensembles, including the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, the Camerata Salzburg, the Kammerorchester Basel, the Orchestra della Svizzera italiana, Il Giardino Armonico and Diego Fasolis's Barocchisti, as well as internationally renowned soloists such as Cecilia Bartoli, Richard Galliano, Nemanja Radulović, Hayato Sumino, and the brothers Arthur and Lucas Jussen.
Artists in residence and new programming modalities
Central to the new format is the annual presence of three artists in residenceFor 2026, soprano Julia Lezhneva, violinist Vilde Frang, and cellist Sol Gabetta have been invited. In addition to performing chamber and symphonic concerts, the artists will hold masterclasses and participate in training projects, helping to create a narrative and artistic continuity within the festival.
This approach allows us to move beyond the logic of the single event, instead favoring thematic paths and lasting relationships between performers, audiences, and young musicians.
The classicAscona academy and the Next Generation
The core of the renewal is represented by the birth of the classicAscona academy & Next Generation, divided into seven training courses. The project aims to promote the new generation of musicians and strengthen the festival's role as an educational platform.
Among the main initiatives is theAscona Choral Academy, created with the Tenebrae Choir of London. In the final week of the festival, the ensemble directed by Nigel Short will hold concerts and workshops involving over 200 choristers from Switzerland and Germany. Also on the program is a Baroque Academy in collaboration with Il Pomo d'Oro and the flautist Maurice Steger, the residence of the Youth Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, open-air concerts on the lakeside with students from the Conservatory of Italian Switzerland and the project Young Constellation, dedicated to very young international talents.
The offer is completed by a project for children and young people, developed with the Dimitri Academy and local schools, and 18 free concerts, which make the results of training activities public.
Interdisciplinarity and dialogue with the territory
Alongside music, classicAscona 2026 offers a series of interdisciplinary events that intertwine literature, gastronomy, architecture, and nature. The "Ticino – Land of Artists – Sehnsucht Ticino" series includes meetings dedicated to the myth of the Gotthard, starting with the story Gotthard by Zora del Buono, with readings and conversations curated by Alain Claude Sulzer.
The gastronomic dimension is entrusted to Michelin-starred chef Pietro Leemann, who will combine a gourmet menu with a Baroque concert in the Bordei chapel, while cellist Mario Brunello will lead a musical walk in the Maggia Valley around the church of Mogno. This framework also includes collaborations with other cultural institutions in the region, including JazzAscona.
New summits and future prospects
The new course of the festival coincides with a renewal at the top of the Foundation, which since 2026 has been chaired by the lawyer Luca AllidiThe declared challenge is to combine the preservation of historical heritage with the capacity for innovation, developing an immersive cultural project capable of generating lasting value for the area.
With classicAscona 2026, the Ascona Music Weeks enter their ninth decade with a reorganized structure and a forward-looking vision, focusing on artistic quality, education, and dialogue between music, community, and landscape.
