LacMus Festival 2026

Ten years. The LacMus Festival already has a past, a history, its own traditions, and its own memories. And this milestone is an occasion worth celebrating. How? By maintaining the same high quality of musical programming. Over the past decade, LacMus Festival has developed an original—indeed, unique—identity: the most sublime music is set against the backdrop of equally extraordinary architecture, nestled in a landscape that welcomes visitors and blends auditory and visual contemplation. Such a nested set of beautiful settings cannot be found at any other festival in the world. And so, the best way to celebrate is to preserve this originality, this uniqueness, and to continue exploring and deepening it.

Thus, the 10th-anniversary edition ties together the threads of many events that have taken place in the past. Take, for example, the Musical Meditation. It is a tradition that began on the first day of the festival’s inaugural year, when the audience was able to hear the wonderful voice of Christiane Karg beneath the vaults of the Sanctuary of the Madonna del Soccorso. The 10th-anniversary edition returns to the same venue with the same voice, featuring a program of Lieder by Duparc, Wagner, and Liszt, precisely to symbolically reconnect with that starting point.

The following day, Louis Lortie performs the pinnacle of the piano repertoire: the complete Chopin Études. And this tradition of performing complete sets has now become firmly established as well. On July 8, the great French accordionist Richard Galliano returns—the only jazz maestro to have been hosted by the LacMus Festival to date—with his sweeping improvisations on a repertoire spanning jazz, tango, and French chanson. And Johannes Brahms returns to Villa Carlotta, where he had stayed in person in 1884; a concert dedicated entirely to chamber music will be held in the very place where he once stayed.

A defining feature of this 10th-anniversary edition is the harp. Anneleen Lenaerts of the Vienna Philharmonic accompanies the voice of Christiane Karg, then Elisa Netzer will give a concert in the park overlooking the lake at sunrise, and Stefania Scapin, in a duo with flutist Andrea Manco, will bring nearly four centuries of music for the instrument to Villa Làrio. There are no fewer than three recitals featuring great opera voices, starring René Barbera, Anna Pirozzi, and Alessia Panza—the latter performing with the Milan Symphony Orchestra, which also has a concert all to itself, featuring Brahms and Liszt in a program consisting almost entirely of Hungarian works. Also on the program are the Musical Greenway, a tour of the lake’s scenic beauty spots; the evening with amateur music lovers from around the world in “Vive les amateurs!”, which this year focuses on music for film and theater; and, of course, activities for children. The LacMus Festival has created and developed many wonderful traditions over the past ten years, and not a single one has been lost.

To learn more and view the program, click here.