Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana

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Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana
Background information
Also known as	OSI
Born	1933 Lugano, Switzerland
Genre(s)	Classical
Occupation(s)	Symphony Orchestra
Website	OSI Web site
Members
Music Director Alain Lombard

Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana is a Swiss orchestra based in Lugano, Switzeraland.

1 History
2 Music Directors & Chief Conductors
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] History

Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana (Orchestra of Italian Switzerland) (or OSI) is widely known in English with this Italian name on its many recordings, exists in its current form since 1991. Previously, under the name of Orchestra della Radiotelevisione della Svizzera Italiana (= RSI), it was founded officially and still resides in Lugano, Switzerland since 1935. Orchestra of Italian Swiss Radio and Television, then an ensemble of some thirty players, was based on a smaller group that had worked with the Italian Swiss Radio since its foundation in Lugano since 1933.

Among the illustrious personalities that have directed the OSI and are especially remembered are: Pietro Mascagni in 1938, Arthur Honegger in 1947, and Richard Strauss, who composed for the RSI Orchestra his very own Duett-Concertino in F major Op. 147. There have been other composers who directed their compositions with the OSI such as Wolf-Ferrari, Frank Martin, Mascagni, Honegger, Hindemith, Frank Martin,Luciano Berio, Milhaud, Hindemith, Hans Werner Henze and Igor Stravinsky. It was for this orchestra that Richard Strauss, in 1947, wrote his Duet-Concertino in F major, Op. 147.

The OSI has had a determining role in the creation and the continuance of the Settimane Musicali in Ascona, the Concerti of Lugano and the Primavera Concertistica of Lugano, where it has been directed by conductors as Ernest Ansermet, Leopold Stokowski, Eugene Ormandy, Markevitch, Cluytens, Carl Schuricht, Sergiu Celibidache, Paray, Monteux, Kubelik, Hermann Scherchen, Inbal, Chailly, Ahronovitch, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Klecki, Chailly, Ahronovitch, Frans Brüggen and many others.

In addition to its work in the concert-hall and broadcasting studio at home, the Orchestra della Svizzera italiana has appeared at international festivals and in major musical centres throughout Europe.

Since its foundation, the director of musical activities of the OSI has changed quite a few times. From 1993 to 1996 the OSI’s Musical Director was Nicholas Carthy; from 1997 to 2000 the Musical Director was Serge Baudo; currently it is directed by the Frenchman Alain Lombard.