Ten years. The LacMus Festival already has a past, a history, its traditions and memories. But such a milestone is an event worth celebrating. How? By keeping the same high-quality musical offerings. Over this decade, the LacMus Festival has developed an original, perhaps unique, identity. Sublime music is presented in venues sporting no less fascinating architecture, nestled in no less wonderful landscapes. Such a Chinese-box experience of beauty cannot be found in any other festival in the world. Hence, the best way is to preserve this originality, this uniqueness, and, if anything, further explore and deepen it.
Thus, this 10th-anniversary edition reconnects with many a thing that had happened in the past. Take, for instance, the Musical Meditation. It is a tradition born on the first day of the first year, when audiences could listen to Christiane Karg’s marvelous voice under the vaults of the Madonna del Soccorso Sanctuary. In 2026, we are back there—same location, same voice, and a program of art songs by Duparc, Wagner, and Liszt, as an ideal bridge to that starting point.
The following day, Louis Lortie tackles the complete Chopin Etudes, another well-rooted tradition of ours—integral performances. On July 8th, the great French accordionist Richard Galliano, the only jazz maestro hosted by LacMus Festival so far, returns with his driving improvisations on a repertoire ranging from jazz to tango and to French song. Even Johannes Brahms returns to Villa Carlotta, where he had come in person in 1884; an entire night of his chamber music is performed right where he had stayed.
A defining feature of the 2026 edition is the harp. Anneleen Lenaerts, of the Wiener Philharmoniker, accompanies Christiane Karg; Elisa Netzer plays in the park on the lakeside at sunrise; and Stefania Scapin, in a duo with Andrea Manco’s flute, brings nearly four centuries of music for her instrument to Villa Làrio. There are three recitals by great operatic voices, starring René Barbera, Anna Pirozzi, and Alessia Panza, the latter with the Milan Symphony Orchestra, which has a concert of its own, too, with music bty Brahms and Liszt in an almost entirely Hungarian program. There will also be the Musical Greenway, a tour of some lakeside beautiful spots, the evening with amateur enthusiasts from around the world in Vive les amateurs!, this year focusing on music for film and theater, and, of course, a space for children. LacMus Festival has created and developed so many wonderful traditions over these ten years, and not a single one has been lost.
