One of the most important musical events in Europe’s summer calendar has been unable to secure funding beyond 2016.

One of the most important and well-loved music events in Europe’s summer calendar, “Progetto Martha Argerich” (the Martha Argerich Project) is under threat of closure due to a lack of sponsorship.

The Argentine pianist’s annual festival in Lugano, Switzerland, now in its 15th year, brings together musicians from all over the world. The highlights of the festival are captured every year on a three-disc set by Warner Classics (the 2015 edition, featuring Argerich with pianists Stephen Kovacevich, Nicholas Angelich, Sergio Tiempo, cellist Gautier Capuçon, violinist Ilya Gringolts and clarinettist Paul Meyer has just been released). The event attracts loyal supporters, many, like Angelich, Tiempo and Gringolts, who return almost every year.

Despite the festival’s high standing, according top the organisers the main sponsor, private Swiss bank BSI, will no longer be funding the festival, Ticino News reported. In recent weeks Swiss authorities have begun criminal proceedings against the bank and the Monetary Authority of Singapore has served BSI with a notice of intention to withdraw its status as a merchant bank for serious breaches of anti-money laundering guidelines. However, the Lugano...