“The major innovation is that the historical Lugano Festival will be transformed into a season especially created for the new LAC. This is unique in Switzerland. Creating a musical programme from start to finish is a great stimulus for me: it’s a way to harness all the experience I have gained over the years. Thanks to the new auditorium, the challenge will also be to introduce recitals, chamber music and opera, which so far has been almost absent from Ticino. Sharing the spaces with the museum and the theatre will also make it possible to work on cross-sector projects and to create programmes inside and outside the structure. Together with the other artistic partners, we have already started discussing future cooperation; there is no shortage of ideas. Very soon Lugano will be able to offer a very high level product fit for the context. LAC has what it takes to impose itself in the European arts panorama”.
Biography
Born in Lausanne in 1960 with a diploma in orchestral conducting and cultural management, he commenced his professional career at The Scala Theatre in Milan before working at the Caecilia music agency in Geneva. Since 1999 he has been artistic secretary and member of the executive committee at the Tonhalle in Zurich. In May 2013 he was appointed artistic and administrative director at the Lugano Festival which, with the opening of LAC, is set to extend the programme throughout the entire year.