The Foundation governing the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana announced the end of contracts with the musicians for December 2017. It’s still only a cautionary measure because of the « the uncertainties involved in negotiations with the SSR on the new financing system », yet it shows how dramatic the situation has become.
Until 2012 the Swiss Radio Corporation SRG/SSR funded the orchestra with annually 3.5 million francs and since then with only 2 millions per year. The Orchestra today receives another 4 million from the canton Ticino, 700,000 francs from RSI, 500,000 from the city of Lugano and 400,000 by the association Friends of the orchestra. After 2017 SRG/SSR does not want to give any flat funding but proposes to buy only separate performances of the orchestra. Also the infrastructure (the Radio studio where the orchestra rehearses) should not be available to the OSI any free of charge.
If further negotiations are not successful, the orchestra will definitely close down by end of 2017, leaving the canton Ticino without a symphonic orchestra.
