Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana

The Orchestra della Svizzera italiana, founded in Lugano in 1935 as the Orchestra della Radio della Svizzera italiana, took its current name in 1991.

The Orchestra della Svizzera italiana performs at venues in Switzerland and abroad. 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.

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, in the main theatres of Brazil under John Neschling and in South Korea with Vladimir Ashkenazy.

The OSI has made studio recordings for radio and for record labels such as Chandos, Hyperion, EMI and Deutsche Gramophon. Its recordings for Deutsche Gramophon include a four-CD boxed set issued in 2012 to mark the first ten years of the orchestra's concerts for the Martha Argerich Project. Its awards include the recent Diapason d'Or (January 2015) for its CD of the symphonies of Gounod on the CPO label.

Founded in Lugano in 1935 as the Orchestra della Radio della Svizzera italiana, it played a crucial role in the region's musical development, helping to establish festivals in Lugano, Locarno and Ascona from the 1940s. Over the years it was directed by musical figures such as Ernest Ansermet, Igor Stravinsky, Leopold Stokowski, Sergiu Celibidache and Hermann Scherchen, and collaborated with composers such as Mascagni, Richard Strauss, Honegger, Milhaud, Martin and Hindemith, and more recently with Berio, Henze and Penderecki. Its first principal conductor Leopoldo Casella was succeeded in 1938 by Otmar Nussio from Graubünden, under whose directorship the orchestra gave a greatly increased number of concerts, opening the way to international engagements. From 1969 to 1991, with Marc Andreae as its principal conductor, the Orchestra della Radio Televisione della Svizzera italiana consolidated its reputation, expanding its repertoire and fostering first performances of works by major living composers.

In 1991 the orchestra took on its current name and began to win international recognition, performing in cities such as Vienna, Amsterdam, St Petersburg, Paris, Milan and Salzburg. Wikipedia