The Orchestra della Svizzera italiana (OSI) works with the great names of orchestral conducting and with internationally acclaimed soloists, performing at major venues both in Switzerland and abroad.

Funded principally by the Canton of Ticino, Radiotelevisione svizzera (RSI), the City of Lugano and the Associazione degli Amici dell’OSI, the OSI is one of thirteen professional orchestras currently active in Switzerland. Consisting of forty-one permanent musicians, it performs two concert seasons a year for RSI-Rete Due (the RSI Auditorium Concerts and the Rete Due Autumn Concerts at the Palazzo dei Congressi in Lugano), and regularly takes part in the Lugano Festival, the Settimane Musicali in Ascona and the Martha Argerich Project.

Its strong ties with the region are maintained through an extensive series of concerts aimed at local communities, including summer concerts, family concerts, school concerts and joint projects with the Conservatorio della Svizzera italiana.

Since 2010 the OSI has performed at the Parco della Musica in Rome under Lorin Maazel, at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan with Salvatore Accardo, on tour throughout Switzerland with Vadim Repin, and in the main theatres of Brazil under John Neschling. It celebrated the Verdi bicentenary by giving carte blanche to one of the major exponents of the great operatic tradition, Nello Santi, with whom it gave three concerts.

In 2012–13 it was also invited to play at the Théâtre Équilibre in Fribourg, the Tonhalle in Zürich, the Stadtcasino Musiksaal in Basel and the Zermatt Festival; at the Sala Verdi of the Conservatorio di Milano, the Teatro Fraschini in Pavia and the Teatro Ponchielli in Cremona; and at the Franziskaner Konzerthaus in Villingen-Schwenningen.

The OSI has made numerous studio recordings both for radio and for important record labels such as Chandos, Hyperion, EMI and Deutsche Gramophon. Its recordings for Deutsche Gramophon include the much-prized four-CD boxed set issued in 2012 to mark the first ten years of the orchestra’s concerts for the Martha Argerich project.

Conductors

  • Vladimir Ashkenazy
    from September 2013
    principal guest conductor
  • Alain Lombard
    from 2005 honorary conductor
    1999–2005 principal conductor
Contacts

Orchestra della Svizzera italiana
Via Canevascini 5
6900 Lugano
t. +41 91 803 93 19
www.osi.swiss