With the sold-out Gala “Roberto Bolle and Friends,” the LAC Lugano Arte e Cultura cultural center has once again highlighted that the key word of its modus operandi is professionalism. A ballet with the right blend of classical and contemporary elements, a visual delight for audiences and an emotional experience for the heart. A well-paced performance with remarkable stage effects that succeeded in bringing a wider audience closer to dance, thanks to the participation of international stars from the world’s leading theaters.
A large audience that is also being won over by the music section. For the upcoming season (2026–2027), expectations are high. At the April press conference held in the theater’s foyer, management focused on specific concepts: “continuity, connection, deconstruction, redefinition, multilingualism.” But that’s not all—there is one more key word: “territory,” adds Roberto Badaracco, President of LAC and Deputy Mayor of Lugano. “It is important to collaborate with local realities, such as neighborhood music initiatives, and through the involvement of the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana.” This year’s figures confirm expectations: “We welcomed 13,000 people, with a 75% occupancy rate. To date, we are seeing a further 20% increase, reaching 18,000 attendees for the season. We have a new audience, many young people, and we are focusing on interconnected cultural workshops in music, dance, and performing arts.”
Today, LAC appears as an institution where musical programming serves as a tool for connecting the arts and fostering multidisciplinarity, encouraging dialogue between interpretative schools and artistic personalities. “The program spans all periods of musical literature, from Baroque to contemporary and new music, from extra-European traditions to boundary-crossing languages, with reinterpretations and journeys across eras, styles, and ever-changing sound geographies that look to the future—even the future of tradition. The artists involved reflect this stylistic koinè: Switzerland, Central Europe, the Mediterranean, the Middle East, the Nordic region, and the United States are not identity labels, but places where music is shaped—symbols of a history of artistic schools,” comments Andrea Amarante, Artistic and General Director, at the end of his first excellent year at the Ticino-based institution, which celebrated its tenth anniversary in 2025.
The central protagonist of the season is the first of instruments: the piano "a machine of civilization and distinction" says Amarante. “With the piano, I want to start from the social history it embodies. No instrument has been so deeply connected to the bourgeois spread of music in the 19th century: the salon, the home, education, transcription, the Lied, study, cultural prestige, the very idea that music could become a daily practice, nourriture de l’âme. Precisely because it carries this history, it remains an extraordinarily fertile instrument today. Few instruments can so clearly combine discipline and desire, structure and impulse, vertical architecture and horizontal flow”.
The season opens on September 12 with the Opera for Peace Academy Gala Concert, marking the conclusion of the first Lugano edition of the Opera for Peace Academy. And then? Here is the full program. For further information, visit: www.laclugano.ch
MUSICAL SEASON 2026–2027
LAC, Piazza Bernardino Luini 6 – Lugano (CH)
MUSIC SEASON 2026–2027
LAC, Piazza Bernardino Luini 6 – Lugano (CH)
SEPTEMBER 2026
12.09 – LAC: Opera for Peace Academy Gala Concert
29–30.09, 8:00 PM – Teatrostudio: Preview FIT International Theatre Festival
Raissa Avilés: Maybe a concert
OCTOBER 2026
16.10, 8:00 PM – LAC Hall: Dhafer Youssef
28.10, 8:00 PM – Hall: Staatskapelle Dresden
Daniele Gatti (conductor), Augustin Hadelich (violin)
29.10, 8:00 PM – LAC Hall: Hiromi – The Trio Project
feat. James Genus (bass), Simon Phillips (drums)
NOVEMBER 2026
11.11, 9:00 PM – Jazz in Bess (in collaboration): Roberto Pianca Quartet feat. Johnathan Blake
13.11, 7:00 PM – Teatrostudio: Early Night
14–15.11 – LAC Hall: Blade Runner Live (film screening with live music, The Avex Ensemble)
18.11, 8:00 PM – Hall: Tovel (Matteo Franceschini) – Songbook
DECEMBER 2026
01.12, 7:00 PM – Teatrostudio: Early Night Modern #2 (Songs of Blood and Fairies)
05.12, 8:00 PM – LAC Hall: Freiburger Barockorchester, Collegium Vocale Gent
Pablo Heras-Casado (conductor), Julie Fuchs (soprano)
20.12, 11:00 AM – LAC Hall: A Christmas Carol
JANUARY 2027
10.01, 5:00 PM – LAC Hall 1: Nils Petter Molvær Trio
15.01, 7:00 PM – Teatrostudio: EAR – Electro Acoustic Room #1
20.01, 8:00 PM – LAC Hall: Asmik Grigorian
24.01, 5:00 PM – LAC Hall 1: Desguin Quartet
FEBRUARY 2027
05.02, 8:00 PM – LAC Hall: Evgeny Kissin
21.02, 5:00 PM – LAC Hall 1: Quatuor Våren
26.02, 7:00 PM – Teatrostudio: Early Night Modern #3 (DADA Happening)
MARCH 2027
01.03, 8:00 PM – LAC Hall: Revolta – Geneva Camerata (David Greilsammer, conductor & dance)
17.03, 9:00 PM – Jazz in Bess (in collaboration): Melissa Aldana Quartet
21.03, 5:00 PM – LAC Hall 1: Helix Trio
24.03, 7:00 PM – Teatrostudio: Early Night Modern #4 (The Third Extended Wheel)
27.03, 8:00 PM – LAC Hall: Missa Solemnis – I Barocchisti
APRIL 2027
02.04, 7:00 PM – Teatrostudio: EAR – Electro Acoustic Room #2
04.04, 5:00 PM – LAC Hall 1: I Solisti della Scala
09–11.04 – Teatrostudio: Oggimusica Meets Code 2027 (various performances)
18.04, 5:00 PM – LAC Hall: Zürcher Kammerorchester
Pablo Hernán Benedí (violin & direction), Julia Hagen (cello)
28.04, 7:00 PM – Teatrostudio: Early Night Modern #5 (Past–Present)
30.04, 8:00 PM – LAC Hall: Camerata Salzburg
Gregory Ahss (concertmaster), Fazıl Say (piano)
MAY 2027
06.05, 8:00 PM – LAC Hall: Ólafur Arnalds
08.05, 8:00 PM – LAC Hall: Star Wars – Between Music and Science
Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano, Jacopo Brusa (conductor)
11.05, 8:00 PM – LAC Hall: Kinan Azmeh & CityBand
14.05, 7:00 PM – Teatrostudio: EAR – Electro Acoustic Room #3
JUNE 2027
04.06, 7:00 PM – Teatrostudio: EAR – Electro Acoustic Room #4
08.06, 8:00 PM – LAC Hall: Hélène Grimaud
17.06, 8:00 PM – LAC Hall: Mahler Chamber Orchestra
Yuja Wang (piano & direction)