Ambroise Thomas   
Ô vin, dissipe la tristesse da Hamlet

George Bizet               
Les tringles des sistres tintaient da Carmen

Gioachino Rossini   
Dunque io son da Il Barbiere di Siviglia

Richard Wagner        
Die Frist ist um da Der fliegende Holländer

Charles Gounod      
Va ! Je t’ai padronné…Nuit d’hyménéé ! da Roméo et Juliette

Giuseppe Verdi       
Caro nome da Rigoletto
Un dì, se ben rammentomi da Rigoletto

Giacomo Puccini
Quando m’en vo da La Bohème
La Bohème Finale dell’Atto II

***

Richard Strauss
Ariadne auf Naxos excerpt from the Prologue
Ariadne auf Naxos excerpt from the opera

Alec Carlson, tenor - USA
Dilan Şaka, mezzo-soprano - Turkiye
Inés Lorans, soprano - Spain/ France
Nursultan Anuarbek, tenor - Kazakhstan
Siphe Kwani, baritone - South Africa
Thandiswa Mpongwana, mezzo-soprano - South Africa
Valentina Puskás, soprano - Hungary/ Romania
XÏA Hanxiao Wang, soprano - China
Youngkug Jin, bass-baritone - South Korea
Sarah Rappoport, Lugano Academy 2026 Fellowship Artist, mezzo-soprano - Suisse

Founded in 1935 as the Orchestra della Radio Svizzera Italiana, the Orchestra della Svizzera italiana (OSI) has just celebrated its 90th anniversary, receiving enthusiastic acclaim from audiences and critics alike in major theatres and concert halls across Europe, from the Golden Hall of the Musikverein in Vienna (where it returned for the third time on 2 March 2026) to the Philharmonie in Berlin, from the Grosses Festspielhaus in Salzburg to the Kölner Philharmonie in Cologne, from the Opernhaus in Frankfurt to the Prinzregententheater in Munich.
Since 2022, Krzysztof Urbański has been the OSI’s Principal Guest Conductor, succeeding Vladimir Ashkenazy in this role, whilst Markus Poschner served as Principal Conductor from 2015 until June 2025.
As the resident orchestra at the LAC Lugano Arte e Cultura (Ticino, Switzerland), the OSI features in three main seasons in Lugano: ‘OSI at the LAC’, from autumn to spring in the LAC Theatre Hall; ‘OSI in the Auditorium’ at the Orchestra’s historic home, the RSI Stelio Molo Auditorium in Lugano Besso (temporarily replaced by the ‘OSI at the Docks’ season), and “OSI at Pentecost”, introduced for the first time in June 2025 in the wake of the Presenza festival, with the aim of establishing a regular event featuring the OSI during a particularly interesting weekend, not least due to the presence of a potential international audience.
Complementing all this is the innovative “be connected” format, featuring special events and concerts throughout Italian-speaking Switzerland to intrigue new audiences, with the aim of breaking down prejudices against classical music and promoting the Orchestra’s identity wherever possible, in the spirit of experimentation, interdisciplinarity and engagement with all age groups.
The rich concert programme sees the Orchestra collaborating with numerous internationally renowned conductors and soloists, both in Italian-speaking Switzerland and beyond the region’s borders: notably Martha Argerich, with whom the OSI has enjoyed a special relationship for over twenty years; conductor Charles Dutoit, with whom closer collaboration is planned for the 2025/26 season; and cellist Sol Gabetta, with whom a stable partnership has developed, leading to the creation of the Presenza al LAC festival, which will return to Lugano in 2027 (every three years).
Concert activities are also constantly expanding in Bellinzona and the rest of Italian-speaking Switzerland, where the Orchestra regularly performs at various annual events, particularly in the field of cultural outreach.
Recording activities are equally intense, in collaboration with the Italian-language Swiss Radio and Television (RSI): following a prestigious first ICMA international award in 2018 for the Complete Brahms Symphonies on DVD (SONY Classical), the OSI and Poschner won a second ICMA in January 2025 for a CD dedicated to works by Paul Hindemith and Alfred Schnittke (ECM New Series label).
The OSI’s original and intriguing discography also includes a series of CDs dedicated to Rossini’s unpublished works, Tchaikovsky’s Symphonies Nos. 5 and 6, as well as a newly released LP featuring Tchaikovsky’s Manfred.
Also of note are the opera and ballet co-productions with the LAC and various international partners. Finally, the OSI’s commitment to young people is extraordinary: around 10,000 children attend the concert-performances designed for them every May. In the musical education of young people, the OSI is distinguished by its close collaboration at various levels with the University School of Music of the Conservatorio della Svizzera italiana.
Open-air concerts, film-concerts and summer festivals – including the Locarno Film Festival – round off the programme, engaging an ever-wider audience.

The OSI would like to thank all its funders and sponsors, in particular the Republic and Canton of Ticino – Swisslos Fund, the City of Lugano, the municipalities of the ERSL, the Association of Friends of the OSI (AOSI), the main sponsor BancaStato and the Canton of Graubünden.
​​​​​​​The OSI is the resident orchestra at the LAC. The OSI is also grateful to its main partner, RSI, for its constant support and regular radio broadcasts.
Information: www.osi.swiss

Conductor, pianist and Indian-American singing teacher Kamal Khan is co-founder and artistic director of Opera for Peace. Alongside his career as a musician, he is passionately committed to opera training. He has performed in the world's most prestigious theatres and has collaborated with major orchestras and internationally renowned singers. A much-loved teacher, he is active in many important study programmes for young artists, universities, music schools and international vocal competitions. “I Live to Sing”, an EMMY-winning documentary, illustrates his work at the University of Cape Town.