Lucerne Festival Orchestra

The summer of 2003 saw the birth of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, which was launched by the Italian conductor Claudio Abbado and the Festival’s Executive and Artistic Director Michael Haefliger. Thus they established a link with the legendary “elite orchestra” for which Arturo Toscanini assembled acclaimed virtuosos of his time to create a magnificent ensemble in 1938, the year of the Festival’s founding. Abbado served as Music Director of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra until his death in January 2014. He was succeeded in 2016 by Riccardo Chailly, who has since extended his contract until 2026. Guest conductors have included Andris Nelsons, Bernard Haitink, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Herbert Blomstedt, Jakub Hrůša, Iván Fischer, Pablo Heras-Casado, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, and Paavo Järvi. The orchestra comprises renowned principals, chamber musicians, and music teachers, as well as members of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and the Filarmonica della Scala. It presents a number of symphony concerts during the Summer Festival and, since 2022, a three-day music festival in the spring, along with chamber music appearances. Many of its performances have been broadcast on television and are available on DVD or CD; these have garnered such distinctions as the Diapason d’or, the BBC Music Magazine Award, and the International Classical Music Award. The Lucerne Festival Orchestra has toured to many European musical capitals and to New York, Tokyo, Seoul, Beijing, Shenzhen, and Shanghai. In the fall of 2024, it will appear with Chailly at the Philharmonie in Paris and the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie.

The Lucerne Festival Orchestra has been performing annually at the Summer Festival since its first appearance in 2003.

July 2024