Cultural winter Arosa
The Kulturwinter Arosa offers a varied program again this year. In addition to lots of music, there are lectures, readings, talks and a film. The flagship events are the two festivals Arosa Sounds and Arosa Klassik.
Arosa Sounds 2026 from January 29 to February 1 is all about the piano - from sensual head cinema to boogie-woogie with heart. With Traffic, Bernese composer Simon Ho and André Dubois present a suite for two pianos inspired by being on the move: Train stations, hotel bars, markets and highways become musical sceneries full of movement and poetry.
The Palestinian pianist and composer Faraj Suleiman, known for his energetic combination of Arabic music and jazz, will delight audiences with works that build bridges between the Orient and the Occident. Frank Muschalle, one of Europe's leading boogie-woogie pianists, will provide pulsating rhythms. The young Swiss pianist Manon Mullener takes the audience on a journey around the world with her album Stories. Each piece tells of people, encounters and emotions - a modern jazz album with Cuban flair and a lot of heart.
With the Bündner Sounds project, Arosa Kultur is bringing the diversity of the local music scene to the stage: from Mel D to Ursina, from Walter Lietha to FROM KID - the quintet around Anna Bläsi, Gianna Lavarini, Sören Dokter, Marc Jenny and Rolf Caflisch lends Graubünden compositions fresh sound colors between pop, minimal and improvisation with new arrangements by Andi Schnoz.
The theme of this year's Arosa Classical Music Festival is "canti d'italia" and will take place from February 27 to March 20. Swiss mezzo-soprano Maria Riccarda Wesseling will sing at the opening. She will take the audience into the little-known world of Italian art songs. She will be accompanied by pianist Kristina Rohn. - Giuseppe Verdi founded the "casa di riposo" in Milan in 1896. With Il bacio di tosca, Swiss director Daniel Schmid created a touching film about the old people's home in 1984. It still provides accommodation for musicians, opera singers... people for whom the big career never happened - and other, successful people whose dream salaries have long since been used up.
The third edition of the travel guide Genoa - La superba has already been published. Graubünden historian Prisca Roth has subtitled her book "Streifzüge durch die Kulturstadt". In her lecture on Genoa, Prisca Roth talks about Genoa's dark labyrinth of alleyways, the industrial port, the polite aloofness of its inhabitants, the colorful robes of the African women, the quiet smiles of the transvestites... She is accompanied by the Genoese cantautore Paolo Gerbella.
The Graubünden orchestra le phénix - specializing in lively interpretations of baroque music - combines original works by Vivaldi with adaptations of this musical style by Rondo Veneziano in its programme. At the Arosa Classical Music Festival, "le phénix" juxtaposes baroque and "modern" live in concert for the first time and travels to Venice in the early 18th century, with original sounds and in the style of the 1980s.
As in previous years, the winners of the Hans Schaeuble Award will give concerts as part of the Arosa Classical Music Festival. In two groups, they will develop concert programs in Arosa which will be performed not only in Arosa but also in Chur, Ilanz, Boswil, Cham and Zurich.
