Since 1982, Bologna Festival has been one of Italy’s most respected and dynamic concert institutions. With a strong international outlook, it brings leading orchestras and major figures in classical music to Bologna, helping to strengthen the city’s role as a reference point for concert life in Italy and abroad.
A history of musical excellence, from 1982 to today
Founded with the aim of offering a high-quality cultural programme, Bologna Festival has built a distinctive and continuous presence over time. Its growth has progressively expanded the scope of its programming, while maintaining a steady focus on interpretative excellence and an ongoing dialogue with its audiences.
Major orchestras and leading international artists
Over the years, Bologna Festival has welcomed many of the most prestigious names on the international concert scene. Guest artists have included, among others: Claudio Abbado, Martha Argerich, Myung Whun Chung, Teodor Currentzis, Isabelle Faust, Daniel Harding, Riccardo Muti, Antonio Pappano, Mstislav Rostropovich, Maria João Pires, and Yuri Temirkanov—alongside many other distinguished performers.
Artistic direction and the growth of the programme
The artistic directors who have shaped the Festival over the years—including Mario Messinis, who led it for more than two decades, and the current Artistic Director Maddalena da Lisca, who also serves as Superintendent of the Association—have progressively enriched and expanded its offer.
From the original “Grandi Interpreti” festival, which remains the most distinctive core of the programme today, Bologna Festival has grown into a structured season comprising 9 series, over 90 events, and year-round programming.
An open, dynamic and contemporary vision
This evolution has fostered an open and contemporary approach to the concert world. Bologna Festival engages with diverse audiences, is rooted in the fabric of the city, and responds decisively to the new challenges classical music faces each year—starting with generational and cultural change.
Its path of growth continues to follow the founding mission: to offer a rich, high-quality cultural programme within the classical music landscape.
Formats, venues, audiences: a plural offer
Today, Bologna Festival stands out for the variety of its formats, the diversity of its venues, and its attention to different audiences.
Alongside this, the Festival is strengthening its commitment in education, social initiatives and local engagement, with the goal of increasing its cultural impact across the city and the wider metropolitan area.
The 2026 season
Bologna Festival’s 2026 season unfolds throughout the year as a wide-reaching cultural project, combining traditional and academic proposals with audience dialogue formats, “off” contextual programmes and multimedia experimentation. Concerts and curated pathways span a broad geography of venues— theatres, museums, cloisters, churches and public squares—extending to non-conventional spaces, with initiatives that also reach the juvenile detention centre. The programme addresses all age groups, from early childhood to adults, and explores early, modern and contemporary repertoires from Europe and beyond the Western canon, including commissions, premieres and rediscoveries. At its international core are the GRANDI INTERPRETI, featuring top-level orchestras and conductors (including the Chamber Orchestra of Europe with Sir Simon Rattle, the Orchestra of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia with Daniel Harding, and the Utopia Orchestra with Teodor Currentzis), as well as piano recitals featuring Sophia Liu and an extraordinary concert by Lang Lang. Alongside major concert events, series such as CARTEGGI MUSICALI and IL NUOVO L’ANTICO L’ALTROVE broaden the listening experience by integrating storytelling and in-depth insights, while youth-focused projects and urban and social initiatives—such as BABY BOFE’, CLASSICA IN SNEAKERS and the PROGETTO LEPORELLO—reinforce the Festival’s educational and community-oriented dimension.
Bologna Festival is a member of
Bologna Festival is a member of
Bologna Festival is a member of
