Konzerthaus Halden
Haldenplatz 4, 8032 Halden
Box office +41 44 512 60 00
Season 2026/27
Halden opened its hall in 1964 with a Bruckner Seventh and has played one every September since. The 2026/27 season runs from 11 September to 24 April, with eighteen first performances and a flat rate of CHF 15 for anyone under 30.
We programme in arcs. The autumn is late romantic and loud because the hall was designed for that repertoire and still answers to it. Winter narrows: chamber music in the Kammersaal, the organ, one long evening of Feldman. Spring opens out again and ends with the Ninth, as it has done in eleven of the last fourteen seasons.
Nothing is programmed to fill a gap. If a date has no argument behind it, the date stays empty and the hall is given to the education department instead.
Subscriptions open on 6 May 2026, single tickets on 3 June. Renewal has run at 62 per cent for three seasons, which means roughly 340 subscription seats reach the public each year.
The full printed season book, 96 pages, is free at the box office and posted anywhere in Switzerland on request.
Instruments belonging to the house are lent to residents and to the instrument library. The 1911 Bergonzi copy below has been in Halden since 1968.
Ten of ninety-two dates. Times are start times. Prices are the lowest and highest band for that date, before any reduction.
The remaining 82 dates are listed in the season book and at the box office. Foyer recitals are not listed anywhere.
Reinhardt built a shoebox, narrow and tall, and refused the fan shape that was fashionable in 1961. The side walls are ribbed oak over 90 mm of plaster, which is heavy enough to return the bass rather than absorb it. The result is a room that flatters a string section and forgives a brass section nothing.
The 2019 refit changed very little on purpose: a new stage riser system, 140 replaced seats with matched absorption, and the removal of a 1988 canopy that had been dulling the upper balcony for thirty years.
Grosser Saal, full orchestra layout. 214 m² of stage, risers at 200 mm.
Tuned twice a year, in March and in September, over four nights each time. The instrument is available to students of the conservatory on Monday afternoons at no charge.
Two residencies a season. Both are expected in the building, not only on the stage.
Chief Conductor
Appointed 2023, contract to 2030
Vogler conducts 22 of the 92 concerts this season, including the opening Bruckner and the closing Ninth. She rehearses with the doors open on Thursday mornings and expects the hall to be used, not admired.
Artist in Residence 2026/27
One season, six appearances
Halvorsen plays the Shostakovich in January, two chamber programmes in the Kammersaal, and three unannounced 20-minute recitals in the foyer. Foyer recitals are free and are not listed in advance.
Fourteen Thursday mornings, 10.00 to 12.30. Free, no booking, come and go. Doors on Gerberstrasse.
14 dates
Years 3 to 9. Two visits from a player, then a concert in the hall. Transport paid within the canton.
42 schools, 6,100 pupils
Instruments on loan for a year at a time, CHF 40 including insurance. Waiting list runs to about five months.
180 instruments
Any unsold seat, any concert, CHF 15. Released 14 days before the date, in person or online.
CHF 15 flat
Subscriptions open 6 May 2026 at 09.00. Single tickets open 3 June 2026 at 09.00. There is no booking fee, online or at the counter, and there never has been.
Foyer, Haldenplatz entrance. The counter opens 90 minutes before every concert.