Chailly extends Lucerne contract
Riccardo Chailly's contract as Chief Conductor of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra has been extended until the end of 2026. As Claudio Abbado's successor, he took over the direction of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra in summer 2016.
Riccardo Chailly has been a regular guest at the Lucerne Festival since 1988, as chief conductor of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig. He has been at the helm of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra since 2016.
Founded in August 2003, the orchestra is made up of internationally renowned soloists, chamber musicians and music professors as well as members of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and the Filarmonica della Scala. Claudio Abbado was the artistic director of this "orchestra of friends", as he himself called it, until his death in January 2014.
